


First Winter at Fire Lodge

by BritHistorian



Series: Fire Lodge [1]
Category: BLACKPINK (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Broken Bones, Cooking, Cooking Lessons, F/F, Gen, Ski lodge AU, Skiing, Snow, Snow-shoeing, Snowed In, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-02-26 05:51:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 41,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13229370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritHistorian/pseuds/BritHistorian
Summary: Jennie Kim has inherited her parent's ski lodge and has to learn on the job how to keep it running, with no one to help but a first-time executive chef (Chaeyoung Park), a clueless prep cook (Jisoo Kim), and an assistant manager who's working as a maid until she can learn Korean (Lisa Manoban).  Working together, the four young women try to keep the Fire Lodge running in the face of everything a ski country winter can throw at them.  (And who knows - they might even find love in the process!)





	1. Chapter 1

“Winter arrived last night, all at once and with a vengeance.”

Jennie Kim looked at the first line of the November newsletter on the screen of her laptop.

“That’ll never do,” she said to herself. The newsletter has to be positive if it’s going to attract customers. Never mind that the last thing she felt was positive. This was going to be her first season managing the Fire Lodge since her parents had died in a helicopter crash, leaving her the owner and operator of the ski lodge-style bed and breakfast. 

Then a couple of weeks ago the head chef quit, leaving Jennie with no time to do anything but to promote Chaeyoung Park, the previous assistant chef, to head chef. Never mind that at 20 years old Chaeyoung was two years younger than Jennie, and certainly the youngest head chef in the Valley by a matter of at least a decade. She had worked at the Fire Lodge for the past four years, going to culinary school in the off-season, so she was at least somewhat qualified for the position. And more to the point, she was here, she wanted the job, and she was willing do it for the salary that Jennie was able to pay. Since the helicopter company was holding up the insurance payout from her parents’ death, Jennie was left trying to run the place on a shoestring - using the scant remnants of last year’s operating budget to cover expenses during the season’s first guests, then using the money earned from those guests to cover expenses during the later part of the season. It would work, so long as expenses didn’t go up too much and no more than a few of the reservations canceled.

To fill out the remainder of the staff, Jennie called the same agency her parents had always used. She was sure that her father would have been able to demand better employees, but Jennie had a sinking feeling they had used her inexperience to pawn off on her a couple of rejects. For an assistant chef they’d sent her a girl named Jisoo Kim who, while nice enough, barely knew her way around the kitchen. And for assistant manager they’d sent her a girl named Lisa Manoban, a Thai immigrant who didn’t speak Korean yet! Fortunately Lisa spoke Japanese, so Jennie could still communicate with her, but she couldn’t take on the duties of assistant manager until she could speak Korean well enough to communicate with the guests. In the meantime, she was willing to work as a maid, at a maid’s pay, until her Korean was good enough to earn her a promotion and a raise.

Jennie shook her head. Enough woolgathering. The newsletter wasn’t going to write itself. She backspaced a bit and then started typing again.

“Winter arrived last night, all at once, surprising us with her delicate beauty.”

That was a much better start.

******

Jisoo Kim sniffled deeply, trying to hold back the tears caused by all the onions she was chopping. She’d managed to make it through her first weekend at Fire Lodge, but she knew at least part of that was because Chef Chaeyoung was taking on more of the cooking than an executive chef would usually do. She was determined, though, that she was going to be an asset to the kitchen before long, not a burden. She’d already done the breakfast dishes and now she was getting a head start on chopping the evenings onions - Chef had told her “If you ever find yourself with nothing to do, go wash something. And if you find yourself with nothing to wash, go prep some vegetables.

Jisoo hoped to someday open her own restaurant, but that would require her to gain all the cooking skills necessary. And since she couldn’t afford to go to culinary school, that meant her only shot was to learn on the job. But most chefs didn’t have the time or the inclination to take on someone with no skills and teach them everything - not when there are so many new culinary school graduates looking for any job they can get. So she’d counted herself fortunate when the agency had recommended her for this job. Working at a small bed and breakfast under the one-on-one supervision of the executive chef was her dream job.

She measured out the chopped onion into 1-cup piles, then put the piles into plastic baggies in the fridge. She hoped 10 cups of chopped onions was enough for now, because she was tired of chopping onions for the moment. Besides, she still had carrots and bell peppers to chop today, as soon as she washed her knife and cutting board.

As she walked over to the dish sink, Jisoo looked toward the pantry and saw Chef Chaeyoung busy with her notebooks, planning the meals for the week. Someday, she vowed, that would be her. She’d have her own notebooks, and be planning her own menus, in her own kitchen.

******

Lisa Manoban stopped for a moment to look out the window of the second floor bedroom she was cleaning. Dark green pine trees covered most of the mountains, the exception being the broad white stripe where the ski runs were laid out. The ski lifts were already running, even though most of the seats were still empty. The “town” - really a handful of ski resorts and the businesses that catered to the guests of those resorts, looked like a Swiss village that had been picked up and plunked down in the mountains of Korea. The whole scene was covered over with a thick layer of fluffy white snow. Lisa was looking forward to her day off the next day - this early in the season they only had guests on the weekends and Lisa got a whole day off on Tuesday. As things got up to full speed, they’d have guests all week long and Lisa’s Tuesdays off would be curtailed to just the afternoon, so she knew she’d need to enjoy these early Tuesdays as much as she possibly could. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to fill tomorrow with skiing or hiking. Probably skiing, unless she could get someone else from the Fire Lodge to hang out with her. Skiing was fine to do by yourself, but hiking was always more fun with someone else. Of course, making it to her Tuesday off required that she make it through her Monday’s work.

Turning away from the window, she assessed the room. She’d already swept, dusted, made the bed, gathered the used towels from the en suite bathroom and put out new towels. Her tip was nestled snugly in her apron pocket - she’d never considered how practical aprons were until she’d gotten this job. Now all that remained to do was gather up the dirty linen in the laundry bag, carry it down to the basement, put it on to wash, change it over into the dryer, wash it, fold it... Lisa was getting tired just thinking of the things she had left to do related to this one room; she didn’t know how she’d manage when both bedrooms and all 6 cottages were in use. 

As she loaded the laundry bag, she wished, not for the first time, that she’d learned more Korean before trying to work here. With more Korean under her belt, she could have gotten a position at one of the luxury hotels in the big cities. Or even if she was still working here at Fire Lodge, at least she’d be the assistant manager rather than the maid. 

As she passed through the back of the main hall on her way to the basement stairs, she saw Jennie-unnie sitting at the front desk, working on something on her laptop. She waved as she passed by, but the manager didn’t look up from her screen, her brow creased in concentration. Lisa sighed as she started down to the basement. She knew Jennie-unnie was stressed because this was her first season as an owner/operator and money was tight. But she also knew she’d need to find some way to help Jennie-unnie deal with that stress - if she was constantly stressed out, guests would pick up on it, they wouldn’t enjoy their stay as much, which would lead to less than glowing reviews, which would lead to cancellations, which could eventually lead to either Lisa or Jisoo - or possibly even both - being let go.

As she put the towels and sheets in the washer, the thought occurred to Lisa that even when she brought her Korean skills up to par, the lodge’s budget wouldn’t stretch to hiring a fifth staff member, so she’d still be doing the maid’s duties. She’d just be doing them at an assistant manager’s pay, and with an assistant manager’s duties on top of them. Still, Lisa had agreed to do this job, and she was going to do it the best that she could, come hell, high water, or stressed out managers. After starting the washer, she sat down in a chair by the folding table, Korean textbook in hand, prepared to study until time to change the clothes over to the dryer.

******

Chaeyoung Park surveyed the contents of the pantry. She was juggling 3 notebooks in her hands. She’d look at her notes on their regular guests’ preferences in the first notebook, use that to look up the recipes in the second notebook, then compare the contents of the shelves to the ingredient lists in the recipes and write any shortcomings in the third notebook. Her grocery list was already half a page long and she hadn’t even finished making the menu for the first weekend. She knew Jennie was running short on money, but without food, they’d never get guests to stay and then they’d be even shorter on money. She’d have to take the truck and go to the shops outside the valley for all this stuff. While there was a grocery store in the valley, it was a tourist store and charged tourist prices. It was an acceptable place to go when you just needed a couple of items and so their ridiculous markup would be less than the cost of gas to drive out of the valley, but there was no way she could afford to do bulk shopping like this there. Chaeyoung wasn’t too happy at the prospect of spending all afternoon and well into the evening on a grocery run, finally finishing up well past her usual bedtime, but there was no other choice. Likewise, she wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of leaving Jisoo to cook tonight’s staff dinner but, again, no other choice.

Jisoo. Chaeyoung sighed as she watched her new assistant struggle through chopping a bell pepper with quite possibly the worst knife technique Chaeyoung had ever seen. She looked like she was going to lose a finger at any moment, yet somehow she hadn’t cut herself. Yet. But it looked like it would just be a matter of time. She didn’t know the standard cooking terminology. She could barely follow a simple recipe. She had no training in safe food handling. Chaeyoung wondered if she had been so clueless when she first started here. If so, then all the chefs she’d worked with should get medals.

At least Jisoo wanted to learn. That was something. Someone who didn’t know but wanted to learn was infinitely more useful than someone who didn’t know and was content to carry on not knowing. So far Jisoo had learned how to properly cut up a chicken and clean the area afterward so that no one got food poisoning. And though her knife skills still left a lot to be desired, yesterday she had managed to cut a carrot into a passable batonnet. Chaeyoung checked the clock, wondering if she’d have time to get in another knife skills lesson with Jisoo before she left. She certainly wouldn’t if she didn’t finish up the shopping list. She turned her attention back to her notebooks and started planning Saturday’s dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

Having put away all the clean linen, and in the process studied Korean until she felt like her head was going to burst, Lisa came upstairs for the first time in hours. When she did, she saw Jennie still sitting at her desk, still staring at her laptop. The only difference is that the furrows in her brow were deeper. Obviously time had not fixed the problems that Jennie was having with whatever she was working on. Lisa checked the time - it’d been three hours since she went down to the basement. If whatever Jennie was trying to do hadn’t been solved by 3 hours of aggressive thought, then obviously that wasn’t the way to go about it. But how could she get her boss to see that? Just then, Lisa happened to pass by a window and looking outside, her breath was taken away by the beauty of the scenery, which gave her an idea.

After fifteen minutes of puttering around taking care of things, Lisa presented herself in front of Jennie’s desk. Bowing deeply, she summoned as much as she could of the Korean she’d studied. “Excuse me, HuiJang-nim. Good afternoon.” Then she switched back to Japanese to add “I’ve prepared a surprise for you on the back deck, if you’d care to come with me.”

Jennie shook her head, started out of her reverie. “Oh, Lisa! You startled me. Your Korean is already improving! But you don’t have to call me HuiJang-Nim. Jennie-unnie will do.” She got up from behind her desk and stretched.

Lisa put on her jacket, then rushed to bring Jennie her jacket and help her put it on. “Right this way,” she said.

They walked out onto the back deck, where Lisa had built a fire in the firepit and had two steaming cups of cocoa waiting for them.

“I was planning to either go skiing or hiking on my day off tomorrow,” Lisa said, as she led Jennie to a chair and handed her a cup of cocoa. “And I was hoping you could recommend some routes for me, and maybe tell me which you think tomorrow would be better for.” 

Lisa picked up the other mug of cocoa and sat down in the chair next to Jennie. Looking over at her boss, she saw that a lot of the tension had drained from her face. A smile had even started to turn up the corners of her mouth.

“I think I can do that.” Jennie said, taking a sip of the cocoa. Looking out over the mountains behind the lodge, she said “Yes, I definitely think I can do that. And if you can go get my laptop, I can finish up the marketing newsletter at the same time.”

Lisa rushed back inside and grabbed Jennie’s laptop. When she made it back to the deck, she saw that Jennie had leaned back in her chair and was sipping the cocoa, a contented smile on her face. Lisa hung back a moment, trying to let her boss enjoy this moment of peace a little bit longer.

******

Chaeyoung looked down at her grocery list. Through skillful use of her recipes and advance knowledge of the weekend’s guests’ preferences she’d managed to keep it shorter than it might have been. It was probably still longer than Jennie would want it to be, though. Well, that couldn’t be helped - they were still in the process of restocking the staples that had to be bought in large quantities even though they were only used in little bits at a time. Spices, for example. Even buying the bare minimum each week, spices still made up a significant portion of the current grocery list. Mentally estimating the total cost of the items on the list, she squared her shoulders and prepared to go give Jennie the bad news.

On her way out of the kitchen, Chaeyoung stopped to give her assistant some instructions; she looked forward to when she could just say “roast a butternut squash” and Jisoo would know what to do, but she was nowhere near that point yet. “When you finish with those peppers, I need you to get started on dinner. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Peel a butternut squash and cut it in half. Scoop out and discard the seeds. Cut it into a 1-inch dice. Toss the pieces with olive oil, spread them out on a baking sheet, salt and pepper, and put it in the oven.” 

“Yes yorisa-nim!” Jisoo answered in a loud voice.

Chaeyoung sighed, pressed her hand to her forehead, and took a deep breath. “Jisoo-unnie, we went over this yesterday. The kitchen is small, so you don’t have to use a chef voice like that, and we’re the only two people in here, so you don’t have to call me ‘yorisa-nim’ - please, just call me Chaeyoung. I’d like for us to be friends, and that’s going to be kind of hard if you’re always loud and formal. Okay?”

“Yes Chaeyoung,” Jisoo said quietly, shrinking in on herself a little bit.

“That’s better!” Chaeyoung responded, smiling warmly. “I’ve got to go talk to Jennie about the grocery list. I should be back well before the squash is done roasting, but just in case start checking it 25 minutes after you put it in, and take it out when it’s lightly browned.”

“OK, Chaeyoung. See you when you’re done talking to Jennie!” Jisoo smiled, lighting up her whole face.

Chaeyoung returned the smile, then headed up to the lobby. When she didn’t see Jennie at her usual spot at the front desk, she checked the great room, the dining room, and supply closets - no Jennie anywhere.

“Jennie?” she called out.

No answer, so she repeated the call louder. Listening intently, she barely heard Jennie’s response: “I’m on the back deck! Come on out!” 

Chaeyoung had eaten her lunch out on the back deck, and knew there was nothing wrong out there that would require Jennie’s attention. If Lisa had actually convinced their workaholic boss to take a break, she’d already earned her salary for the entire season as far as Chaeyoung was concerned - Chaeyoung could remember Jennie as she was before her parents died, and would do almost anything to have that Jennie back.

******

Jennie was sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs on the back deck, her legs stretched out before her, her computer on her lap, her cocoa close at hand. Lisa was sitting in the chair next to her, her legs tucked underneath her, obviously hanging on Jennie’s every word. 

Jennie had lived with her parents at Fire Lodge since she was 5, so the valley behind the lodge was full of memories for her. Over here is the hill where her mother taught her how to sled. Over there was the place where she and her father would go birdwatching. Downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, mountain biking, snowball fights, wildlife watching - Jennie had covered the whole place with memories. As she told Lisa the stories, she wrote the month’s marketing newsletter, counting on the positive feelings of her memories to carry over into the letter.

During a pause between stories, she heard Chaeyoung calling her from inside the lodge.

“I’m out on the back deck,” she yelled back. “Come on out.”

When she saw Chaeyoung coming out with a notebook and looking worried, she knew it was to discuss the week’s groceries and that Chaeyoung didn’t like what she was about to say. To try to make things easier on her, she turned to Lisa and said “Lisa, would you go make Chaeyoung a cocoa please? Take yours with you so it doesn’t get cold.”

As Lisa scampered off, Jennie turned back to Chaeyoung. “That’s an ‘I’ve got bad news’ look on your face. Nothing’s wrong down in the kitchen, is it? Did one of the appliances break down?” Jennie hoped that by giving her the opportunity to deny something worse, it’d make Chaeyoung feel better about what she did have to say.

“Oh, no,” Chaeyoung said quickly. “Nothing that bad. It’s just that I’ve made up the grocery list for the next week and I wanted to get the debit card from you and clearance to buy these things.” She held out the list to Jennie.

Jennie quickly scanned down the long list of items. There were a lot of staples and spices on the list, but that was to be expected at this point in the season. Nothing jumped out as being excessive or out of place, though. “What if I told you that you had to scratch something off this list?”

Chaeyoung had been expecting this question. “I’d scratch off one of the packages of chicken thighs and the staff would be eating vegetarian Thursday night.”

“And if I said you could buy two more things?”

“I’d add in a pot of orange marmalade and a bag of brown rice.”

Orange marmalade was Jennie’s favorite. So she only had to ask “Why brown rice?”

“Jisoo said she prefers it over white rice.”

Satisfied that Chaeyoung had taken care of the guests’ needs first, and that any additions or subtractions to the list would only affect the staff’s diet, Jennie nodded and handed back the notebook. “This looks fine. Add the brown rice to the list, and get the debit card out of the register drawer before you go.”

Chaeyoung nodded, vowing that she’d find enough savings on the other items to be able to get the marmalade too.

“But,” Jennie continued, “I want you to wait and go tomorrow morning, so you’re not driving back in the dark. And take Jisoo with you, so she can start getting ready to do the shopping sometimes. Oh, and one more thing?”

“What’s that?” Chaeyoung asked warily.

“Relax! Sit down, keep me company until Lisa gets back with your cocoa, and tell me how things are with you.”

******

Jisoo tried not to worry when it took Chaeyoung longer that she’d expected. She had to take the squash out of the oven, she ended up waiting so long. When Chaeyoung did come back, though, Jisoo noticed that she seemed much happier than she’d been when she left.

“You seem happy,” Jisoo said. “I take it everything went okay?”

“Better than okay,” Chaeyoung responded. “Lisa actually managed to convince Jennie to take a break, which is something I never expected to see, and Jennie didn’t freak out about the grocery list. There’s been a change of plans, though.”

“Oh?” Jisoo raised an eyebrow.

Chaeyoung nodded. “I’m not going shopping until tomorrow, and you’re coming with me so that eventually I can sent you out to do the shopping. In the meantime, let’s have a knife skills practice and then we’ll finish the soup for tonight’s dinner. Go get a couple of bunches of celery and meet me at the prep table.”

Jisoo gathered the requested produce and her chef’s knife, ready for her lesson. Chaeyoung took one of the bunches of celery from her and demonstrated how to cut off the root end of the bunch. “Like this.”

Jisoo attempted to imitate Chaeyoung’s smooth motion with the knife, but her cut ended up looking more like an attempted murder than Chaeyoung’s surgical precision. Jisoo despaired of ever being able to mimic Chaeyoung’s expert knife work.

“Now,” Chaeyoung said, “take a stalk of celery off the bunch, lay it out in front of you like this, and chop it like this.” Chaeyoung’s knife flew up and down as she moved it from right to left over the stalk of celery, leaving behind a row identically sized pieces of celery. “Now you try.”

Jisoo laid out a stalk of celery in front of her and tried to imitate Chaeyoung’s motions. Only instead of a neat row of identically sized pieces of celery, she ended up with random size and shape wedges of celery scattered all over the cutting board.

Chaeyoung looked at Jisoo, her brow furrowed in concentration. “I think I see what you’re doing wrong, but I can’t explain it to you. I’ll have to show you. Lay out another stalk of celery in front of you.” Chaeyoung came around the table and stood behind Jisoo. She reached around and held her Jisoo’s hands in hers. “First practice moving the knife up and down without touching the celery.” Chaeyoung moved Jisoo’s hand up and down so that the knife blade tapped against the cutting board like a metallic woodpecker. 

“Then you move the knife over the celery at an even speed while tapping, like this.” She moved the knife from right to left while still tapping. 

Jisoo looked down and saw that together they had cut the celery into even, perfect pieces. She didn’t know which excited her more, the sense of accomplishment at chopping the celery or the safe feeling of Chaeyoung’s arms wrapped around her and Chaeyoung’s strong hands holding hers. Putting the knife down, she turned around and scooped Chaeyoung up in a hug, lifting the younger girl off her feet. “Oh, thank you! I’ve never been able to do that before.” Then suddenly she realized what she had done. She put Chaeyoung down and looked down to try to hide her embarrassment. “Um... I mean... thank you.”

Chaeyoung took a step back and said “Why don’t you go get the squash so we can finish the soup for tonight.” Hanging her head, Jisoo went to get the tray of roasted squash off the stove. Things were weird now and she didn’t know how to fix it. She just hoped Chaeyoung wasn’t upset enough to have Jennie fire her.


	3. Chapter 3

Lisa decided that for her first day off at Fire Lodge she’d go snowshoeing. She got bundled up, checked out a pair of snowshoes, and packed a thermos of coffee, a bottle of water, and some sandwiches in her knapsack, along with her camera. Then she went down to the lobby. As she’d expected, Jennie was already behind the check-in desk, working on something on her laptop, worry lines creasing her brow.

“Are you sure you can’t go snowshoeing with me? Even for a little while.”

Jennie looked wistfully out the window and the clean snow covering the forest. It was a perfect day for snowshoeing. But as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t go. There were still too many things she needed to do to get ready for the start of the season.

“I wish I could, Lise. I’ve just got too much to do around here. You go on, have fun. Make me so jealous when you come back and tell me about all the fun you had.”

Lisa hadn’t expected she’d be able to drag Jennie away from the lodge, even for a little while. But she’d had to try.

“O - kay then,” Lisa said. “But you’ve got to promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?” Jennie’s eyes narrowed skeptically.

“Promise me you’ll remember to eat lunch. And you’ll eat it somewhere other than at your desk.”

Jennie laughed. “I promise.”

Lisa formed her face into a mask of seriousness and help up her hand, the pinkie finger extended. “Pinkie promise,” she said.

Jennie extended her pinkie toward Lisa’s, but Lisa jerked away her hand at the last instant.

“You do know what a serious thing it is, to break a pinkie promise, don’t you?”

Jennie nodded, trying her best to not to smile.

“Okay, then.” Lisa extended her hand again, linked pinkies with Jennie, and they shook on it.

“Now go!” Jennie said. “It’s a beautiful day outside and you don’t need to spend it all in here worrying about me.”

Lisa headed for the door. Halfway there, she stopped and turned around. “There’s some soup left from last night in the fridge. And I made an extra ham sandwich and put in the fridge for you.”

Jennie laughed. “All right, Lisa! I’ll be sure to eat lunch. Believe it or not, I did manage to feed myself before you came along.”

Lisa smiled, not even dignifying that comment with a reply. Between her workaholic tendencies and a bundle of unresolved grief, she had a feeling that Jennie wasn’t remembering to do anything but run the lodge. Lisa was determined that by the end of the season she’d have her boss at something approaching a decent work-life balance, but there was nothing more to be gained by nagging Jennie about it now. Who knows, maybe be the end of the season she’d even be able to get Jennie to go out on a date - there had to be someone in the valley she’d like!

“Oh!” Jennie added, catching Lisa just before she reached the door. “Be sure to be back here by dinnertime. There’s something special we’ve got to do tonight - a Fire Lodge tradition.”

“You got it, boss-lady,” Lisa said as she stepped out into the cold.

* * * * * *

Jisoo finished making fried egg sandwiches and filling a thermos with coffee. “I hope Chaeyoung likes fried egg sandwiches,” she thought, as she wrapped the sandwiches in butcher paper and put them in a paper bag.

“Jisoo!” Chaeyoung was calling from upstairs. “C’mon! Let’s go!”

Jisoo put the sandwiches and the thermos in a shopping bag, grabbed another shopping bag which was full of more shopping bags with her other hand, and dashed upstairs.

“What took you so long?” Chaeyoung asked. “Were the bags hiding from you?”

“Oh no,” Jisoo rushed to say, “I found the bags right away. I decided to fix us some coffee and some breakfast and...”

Chaeyoung interrupted her. “I was just kidding with you! Surprising me with breakfast and coffee? That’s better than I ever did as an assistant. Let’s get on the road. There’s a place we can stop to eat about half an hour from here that has a great view of the valley.”

Jisoo followed Chaeyoung out to the truck, stowed the shopping bags in the back, and climbed into the cab with the bag of breakfast. Chaeyoung was already in and starting the engine. The truck struggled a little, then started up.

“I hope that’s not a bad omen,” Chaeyoung said. “This truck is almost as old as I am. One of the things Jennie is planning to do when she gets the insurance money is buy a new truck. Too bad the lawyers still have that all tied up. We’ll just have to baby this one as long as we can.”

Jisoo thought for a minute. She’d heard the story about the accident that killed Jennie’s parents, but didn’t know much about what they were like when they were alive. It seemed like something it would be nice to know if she was going to work at Fire Lodge. During the drive, while she had Chaeyoung away from Jennie, seemed like a perfect time to ask. “What were Jennie’s parents like?”

“Well,” Chaeyoung began, as she pulled out of onto the road, “Jennie is just like her mom. Looks just like her, acts just like her. Imagine Jennie 20 years from now, and that’s what her mom was like. Her dad was a chef - the first chef I ever worked under. There was nothing that man didn’t know how to cook. The squash soup we made last night was the first recipe he taught me. And he had knife skills like you wouldn’t believe - he could clean and filet half a dozen trout in the time it took me to slice a lemon to cook them with. I remember one time we had a guest who wanted...”

Chaeyoung filled the 3 hours of the drive into town with stories about her time at Fire Lodge. Jisoo was fascinated, hanging on her every word. Some of the stories made her laugh until she thought she’d lose her breath, while others had her on the verge of tears.

“...and here’s town.” Chaeyoung said, wrapping up a story about a time Jennie tried to take four Americans on a snowshoe hike.

And just then, the truck sputtered and died. Nothing Chaeyoung could do would convince it to start up again. She tried messing around under the hood, to no avail. Jisoo even looked under the hood, not that anything there meant anything to her.

Chaeyoung pulled out her phone. “At least it made it to town. I can call G-Dragon to come tow us in to his shop and take a look at it.”

“G-Dragon?” Jisoo raised an eyebrow quizzically.

“A friend of mine who’s both a mechanic and an aspiring rapper. He’s also super-gay, so don’t get any ideas when you see how pretty he is.”

“Super-gay? He wears a cape?” Jisoo hoped a joke was the thing right now. Chaeyoung’s laugh told her it was - it took her several minutes to stop laughing long enough to make the phone call, and she was still having small giggle-fits when the tow truck showed up half an hour later.

* * * * * *

Jennie fed another log into the firepit. The fire was already blazing high, but for tonight she wanted it burning extra high. Chaeyoung had called earlier in the afternoon and told her about the truck breaking down. It meant she and Jisoo would miss out on the bonfire tonight. Jennie had momentarily considered postponing the bonfire ceremony until they get back, but that had always been one of her dad’s few inflexible rules - bonfire ceremony happens on the first night of the season. Jennie remembered one year - she had been only 8 or 9 - there had been a whiteout blizzard on the first night of the season. Somehow her dad had managed to get the fire lit and everyone tied themselves to a long rope so they could go out to the bonfire and drink the toast, then get back inside without getting lost. That had been one of her favorite bonfire ceremonies.

Thinking of the toast reminded Jennie. She once again looked over at the table to make sure that the bottle of single-match scotch and the two shot glasses were there. This was the first bonfire ceremony without her dad there, and she wanted everything to be perfect. As soon as Lisa finished her shower and came out on the deck, it’d be time.

Just then Lisa stepped out onto the deck, pulling her hat down over her ears. She made a show of shielding her eyes from the bright fire. “What’s with the signal fire?” she asked. “Are we trying to get rescued.”

Jennie laughed. “This is a Fire Lodge tradition going back to when my parents first bought the place. Every year, on the first night of the season, Dad would build a huge bonfire. The whole staff would come out and gather around it. One by one, everyone would announce their goals for the season. Then all together, everyone would drink a toast to the season - always single malt scotch, even for me when I was a little girl, though at first my drinks were water with a drop of scotch in it rather than the other way around. It was Dad’s way of getting the season started in a special way. Bonfire ceremony always seemed to turn the staff into a team, and everyone always worked extra hard after that - you didn’t want to take a chance on being the only one not to reach your bonfire ceremony goal.”

“It sounds wonderful,” Lisa said. 

“I wish Chaeyoung and Jisoo could be here,” Jennie said, “but bonfire ceremony happens first night of the season no matter what. One year we had it without my mom because she was in the hospital getting a cast on her leg after a bad fall that afternoon. Do you need a few minutes to think of a goal? I know I sort of sprung this on you without warning.”

Lisa made a show of scrunching up her face with the effort of thinking. “No, I’ve got a goal.”

Jennie went over and fixed them each a shot of the scotch, then added a drop of water to each to open up the flavor. She walked back to stay beside Lisa in front of the fire and handed her one of the drinks.

“Before the end of this season,” Jennie yelled into the fire, “I’m going to show everyone in the valley that I’m not too young to run the Fire Lodge, that I’ll do just as good as my parents at running it, or maybe even better.”

“Woohoo!” Lisa cheered her on. “Now my goal: Before the end of this season, I’m going to convince my boss that there’s more to life than work. She’s going to have fun and I’m going to see more of her smiles and less of the worry lines on her forehead.”

Jennie blinked her eyes, surprised that this was the goal that Lisa had decided to set for herself. She’d clearly underestimated this little Thai powerhouse. “Okay then. To Fire Lodge and the season!”

“To Fire Lodge and the season!”

They downed their shots together and smiled at each other.

* * * * * *

Chaeyoung covered Jisoo with the blanket G-Dragon handed her. They had been talking after dinner and at some point Jisoo had fallen asleep curled up on the couch.

“Thanks again for letting us stay here,” Chaeoyoung whispered.

“No problem. What kind of friend would I be if I made you go to a hotel tonight? It’s not your fault that out of five parts shops in town, none of them have the fuel filter for your truck. Besides, I’ve got an ulterior motive - I never get to see you as much as I’d like, and this way I at least get to hang with you for a little while.”

Chaeyoung and G-Dragon went out out on his patio so that they could talk without disturbing Jisoo. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out, and offered the pack to Jisoo, who refused.

“I thought you were quitting this year,” she said

“I did. I’ve quit four times since the beginning of the year. I keep coming back to it, but I keep quitting. I’m planning on quitting again when I finish this pack.”

He put the cigarette in his mouth, lit it, and took a drag. He looked out over the town for a minute before turning to look over at Chaeyoung.

“So...” he began, “how long have you been going out with her?”

Chaeyoung sputtered, totally taken by surprise by this question. “No... it’s not... I’m not... we’re not...” She stopped, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. After holding it for a moment, she released it and said. “I’m not dating Jisoo. She’s my assistant.”

G-Dragon laughed softly. “You could’ve fooled me. The way she looks at you, if she’s not your girlfriend now, she would be if you just asked.”

“She? What? Really?” 

G-Dragon nodded and took another drag off his cigarette. “Oh yes.”

Chaeyoung pondered for a minute to try to take this information in. She’d never considered the possibility that Jisoo might think of her that way. “How can you tell?”

G-Dragon thought for a moment, trying to put an intuition into words. “The way she looks at you. The way she hangs on your every word. The way she finds any excuse to be close to you. The way she touches you even when she doesn’t need to.”

Chaeyoung looked skeptically at him, raising an eyebrow.

G-Dragon raised his hands defensively. “Hey, I’m just the messenger. You don’t have to believe me. But if you don’t, you’ll have to stop by the shop next time you’re in town and say ‘GD, you were right. She’s fallen hard for me. Beer’s on me.’”

Chaeyoung giggled at his attempt to mimic her voice and playfully punched him in the arm. “Oh yeah, that’ll be the day, when I take relationship advice from you... What makes you so sure?”

G-Dragon was quiet for a minute, smoking his cigarette and concentrating. Finally, he quietly said “Because I was the same way around you at the beginning of last season.”

Chaeyoung shook her head. “But I never noticed. And anyway, you knew that I’m...”

He nodded.

“And you’re...”

He nodded again. “But I didn’t accept who I am, and I didn’t accept who you are. My head was really messed up back then. But the fact still remains: If there was ever a girl who had a chance to turn me straight, it’s you.”

Chaeyoung hugged her knees to her chest and smiled at him. “I must say, I’m flattered. I still can’t believe I didn’t notice.”

Taking a last drag from his cigarette, G-Dragon stubbed it out. “You’re lots of things, Chaeyoung Park, but self-aware isn’t one of them.” He stood up and stretched. “I’ve got to get up early tomorrow so I can get started on your truck as soon as the parts arrive. You coming in?”

Chaeyoung shook her head. “No, I need to sit out here for a while, try to wrap my head around what you’ve said.”

G-Dragon leaned over and kissed her on top of her head. “You can do whatever you want with what I’ve told you, but I think if you let this girl get away, you’re a fool. There’s something special about her.”

Chaeyoung nodded as G-Dragon went inside. He was right. There was something special about Jisoo. “Just my luck,” she said, looking up at the moon. “I meet a wonderful girl - and apparently she’s got a thing for me - but I can’t date her because I’m her boss. What do I do now?”


	4. Chapter 4

Jennie woke up, her head pounding. Someone out there was ringing a bell over and over and OVER again - it felt like her head was going to split in two. The ringing stopped and she was able to try to reconstruct some memory of what had happened. Last night had been fire ceremony, just her and Lisa because Chaeyoung and Jisoo were stranded in town. And Lisa had set that sweet goal, that she was going to make Jennie happy. And Jennie had decided they should each have a second shot of scotch, which turned into a third, which turned into - oh My GOD! - she was pretty sure they’d finished the bottle.

Jennie sat up and almost immediately her aching head made her regret such a rash course of action. If her head had felt like it was going to split in two when she was lying down, sitting up made it feel like it was being split in two then glued back together then split in two the other way then glued back together, and so on.

At least that infernal ringing had stopped. Only now it had been replaced by a banging. Like someone was knocking on her door, with a sledgehammer. Eventually she recognized that is was someone knocking on her door.

“Come in,” she yelled, “QUIETLY.”

The door quietly opened to reveal Lisa, holding a phone in one hand, and a can of tomato juice in the other hand. She put the tomato juice down on Jennie’s nightstand, opened the can, then put a packet of Tylenol down by it. 

“That should help your headache,” Lisa said, “and holding on the phone I’ve got a Mr. G. Dragon. He insists it’s urgent that he talk to you and only you. Should I have him call back later?”

“No,” Jennie responded, leaning over to grab the juice and take the Tylenol. “I’d better talk to him. It’s probably about the truck.”

Lisa handed Jennie the phone and waved good-bye as she tiptoed out of the room.

Jennie pressed the buttons to take G-Dragon off hold. “Hey G. What’s the damage on the truck?”

“Oh, that’s no big deal. Fuel pump and a couple of other things. I’ve already worked out a payment plan with Chaeyoung, all you’ve got to do is sign off on it and send the money each time you send someone to town for groceries. That’s not why I called. I called about Chaeyoung. You’ve got a potential problem heading your way.”

“Oh, what’s that?”

“Well,” G-Dragon said, “here’s how it is: Jisoo’s fallen for Chaeyoung. Fallen hard. Worse than me. Chaeyoung knows, but only because I told her. Who knows how long it would have taken her to figure it out on her own. Chaeyoung’s solution is to ignore it, not do anything about it, because she’s Jisoo’s boss. If you want my advice, I think Jisoo’d be good for Chaeyoung - she’s a sweet kid. The trick’s gonna be how to get Chaeyoung over her hangups before she drives Jisoo away. I’d recommend you have a talk with her as soon as she gets home, before she has a chance to do any more damage.”

“More damage?”

“You know how Chaeyoung gets into her ‘all business’ moods when something’s bothering her and she doesn’t want to deal with it? That’s how she was this morning. You and I know that Chaeyoung doesn’t mean anything by it, but Jisoo doesn’t, and I wasn’t able to get a chance to tell her. Unless I’m mistaken, you’re about to welcome an assistant chef who’s on the verge of quitting because she thinks her head chef hates her and a head chef who’s totally oblivious to the problems she’s caused.”

Jennie sighed. The headache from her hangover was just about gone, but now it was about to be replaced by another one. “Thanks for the heads-up, G. Thanks for everything. It looks like I’ve got just enough time to figure out a plan to handle this before they get here. I’m sure whatever you and Chaeyoung have worked out about the truck will be fine - for a rapper, you’re a great mechanic.”

G-Dragon laughed. “Hey, just because I’m not where I want to be doesn’t mean I’m not gonna work my butt off where I am. Speaking of which, I’ve gotta go. I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

Jennie sighed again as she hung up the phone. She wished she had half of G-Dragon’s confidence in her abilities. Either way, in a couple of hours she’d find out if she was able to handle this first crisis of her career running the Fire Lodge.

******

Jisoo spent the morning trying to figure out what she could possibly have done wrong. Chaeyoung didn’t say anything, and she didn’t seem exactly mad, but there was a coldness there that hadn’t been there the day before. They selected all the groceries they needed with a minimum of talking, loaded them into the truck, and headed back to the lodge.

The ride back to the lodge seemed longer than the ride into town had been. Whereas the previous day’s trip had been filled with easy conversation and entertaining stories, the ride back was filled with awkward silences and stilted attempts at conversation.

When they finally made it back to the lodge, Jisoo helped Chaeyoung unload all the groceries and then started unpacking. Chaeyoung stopped her.

“I’d like to do all the unpacking myself this first time, to help me organize the pantry. Why don’t you go get a shower, take a couple of hours off, and come back at 4 so we can start supper?”

Having been effectively dismissed from the kitchen, Jisoo decided a shower sounded like the best thing at the moment. As she headed upstairs from the kitchen, Jisoo ran into Jennie, who was headed down to the kitchen and stopped her for a few moments of small talk on her stairs. Jisoo considered talking to Jennie about Chaeyoung’s sudden change of mood, but quickly decided against it - she know Jennie and Chaeyoung were friends, so Jennie would be on Chaeyoung’s side if this developed any sort of conflict, and it would only make the rest of the season more uncomfortable if she went over her boss’s head to the main boss before the first week was over.

Once Jennie let her go, Jisoo decided a shower sounded like a great idea - she’d been wearing the same clothes for two days straight, including sleeping in them, and she was starting to itch just thinking about it. Gathering up some clean clothes and a towel, she went to the bathroom. After adjusting the water, she stepped into the shower. As she started soaping herself up, she closed her eyes and imagined it was Chaeyoung’s hands rubbing her all over.

“Oh no,” she said to herself, “you stop that right now. You know that’s not going to happen so stop torturing yourself. Chaeyoung can barely stand to talk to you today after whatever happened overnight, so you can just forget about anything happening there.” She lowered the temperature of the water until it was just barely uncomfortable and then finished her shower.

After she dried off and got dressed, she went out and curled up on one of the chairs, looking out over the valley. She had to decide what to do about Chaeyoung, and she had to decide before prepping for dinner started at 4. 

“Well, for starters,” she thought, “you can stop fantasizing about your boss. Executive chef falls head over heels for sous chef is the stuff of schoolgirl romances, not real life. Hell, you don’t even know if she likes girls.”

Jisoo jumped when she heard someone approach - she didn’t think she’d been talking to herself out loud, but she wasn’t entirely sure. She looked to see who was coming. Whew - it was just Lisa. The Thai girl was practically swallowed by the denim jacket she was wearing and she was eating some kind of snack from a bag.

“Hey there you,” she said, sitting down on the arm of Jisoo’s chair. “Mind if I join you?”

******

Lisa saw Jisoo sitting by herself on the back deck and immediately recognized the appearance of someone who needed a friend. Sitting down on the arm of Jisoo’s chair, she held out the bag of chips toward her. “Shrimp chip? My mom sent me a box of my favorite junk food from Thailand. Try one!”

Hesitantly, Jisoo reached out and took a chip. She tasted it, and apparently liked it because she finished it off. 

“Help yourself,” Lisa said, holding the bag where they could both reach it. “I can’t eat them all.”

They sat for a while in silence, eating chips and looking out over the valley. Jisoo was the first one to break the silence.

“Lisa, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” Lisa responded, throwing a shrimp chip in the air and catching it in her mouth.

“This isn’t your first time working at a resort, is it?”

Lisa laughed. “Oh no. I’m going to university for resort management. I work a part-time job at a hotel in my town, and last summer I did an internship at a beachside resort in Thailand. But you didn’t really want to know about my employment history - what did you really want to ask me there?”

Jisoo was quiet for a minute, not used to dealing with someone so forthright and straightforward. “Did you ever have to work with someone who didn’t like you?”

“Oh sure,” Lisa said, shrugging. “The hospitality industry is full of extroverts with strong personalities. It’s pretty much guaranteed that you’re going to clash with someone.”

Lisa thought for a moment. Since Jisoo had been away with Chaeyoung until a couple of hours ago, there hadn’t been time for her to have had a clash with Jennie. Since this was the most time she and Jisoo had spent together since they started, she knew the problem wasn’t her. Since the resort had a staff of four, that only left one other possibility.

“This is about Chaeyoung, isn’t it?”

Jisoo didn’t say anything, but she didn’t deny it.

Lisa looked around, to make sure the two of them were still alone, then leaned over toward Jisoo. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Whatever’s going on with Chaeyoung, I don’t think it’s anything to do with you.”

Jisoo looked up at her, puzzlement written all over her face.

Lisa leaned in again. “Jennie got a call this morning from someone named Gee Dragon. He sounded like it was pretty urgent that he talk to Jennie, and as I was walking away after bringing her the phone, I overheard Chaeyoung’s name being mentioned.”

Lisa looked at Jisoo, nodding to emphasize the significance of what she’d said. Jisoo looked unconvinced, but took another shrimp chip and changed the subject.

******

Chaeyoung was putting away groceries she and Jisoo had unloaded, stopping from time to time to rearrange the items she had already put away. She told herself she was trying to create the most efficient mise en place, to make cooking easier, but part of her acknowledged that she was just trying to keep her hands and her mind busy, and off Jisoo.

“So other than the truck problems, how was the trip?”

Chaeyoung didn’t turn about to acknowledge Jennie’s presence, but started rearranging the canned vegetables a third time. “Fine,” she said. “The price of seafood was up, but I saved enough on beef and pork to make up for it.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“The weather was nice. The grocery was crowded. The streets were empty. Typical early season day. What do you want to hear?”

“How about the subject you’re deliberately avoiding?

Chaeyoung kept shuffling the cans. “Jennie, I’ve got to get the groceries put away before I can start prepping for dinner.”

“So you’ve got 2-1/2 hours to do half an hour of work. Half an hour of work you could have assigned your assistant to do. Instead you’ve sent her out of the kitchen and occupied yourself with busywork.”

Chaeyoung turned toward Jennie and stood up straight, trying to make the most of her 2-inch height advantage over her friend and manager. “I enjoy organizing the groceries,” she said. “It’s restful for me. Helps me quiet my thoughts.”

Jennie took a step toward Chaeyoung. “And keep them off a certain sous chef?”

Chaeyoung leaned back against the shelving unit. “If you’re trying to say something, Jennie, just say it.”

Jennie took another step forward. “G-Dragon called this morning. He told me about the situation with Jisoo. I was coming to see what you intended to do about it.”

“Nothing,” Chaeyoung said, shaking her head. “I can’t do anything, can I? I’m her boss.”

Jennie scoffed. “That’s so much bullshit and you know it. If we fired people for getting involved with their coworkers, the lodge wouldn’t have ever had a staff. You know as well as I do that the rules made for a 9-to-5 office job won’t work in an environment like this.”

“We don’t even know that G-Dragon is right. I mean, since when did he become Dr. Love?”

“We don’t know he’s wrong either.” Jennie paused for a second. “I know you’re not seeing anyone right now. Have you even gone out on a date since the end of last season?”

Chaeyoung’s silence spoke volumes. Jennie closed the distance between them and laid her hand on Chaeyoung’s cheek. “Just because things didn’t work out with us doesn’t mean I don’t want you to be happy. Sometimes things just don’t work out, and it’s nobody’s fault.” She leaned closer and looked into Chaeyoung’s eyes. “Just because you were my first doesn’t mean I have to be your last. You deserve to be loved. I want you to be loved. I want you to be happy.”

Chaeyoung turned back toward the shelves, but not before Jennie saw the glint of tears welling up. “I’ll think about it,” she said. “I’ve got a lot to think about.”

“Just don’t think too long and miss your chance,” Jennie said. “The Chaeyoung I know wouldn’t have to think - she’d already have this girl.”

“Yeah?” Chaeyoung said quietly. “Well maybe I’m not her anymore. I’ll think about it, and that’s the best I can do.”

Jennie looked sadly at her friend’s back, then turned and left the kitchen.


	5. Chapter 5

After chatting with Lisa for a while, Jisoo checked her phone and saw that it was time to start prepping for dinner. She made her way downstairs and saw that Chaeyoung was still in the kitchen.

“Hey Chaeyoung,” she said. “What do you need me to do first? Is there enough for me to do that you’d have time to get a shower?” Way to put your foot in it, Jisoo, she thought. “Not that I’m saying you need a shower! Just that you might want one!”

“I’m fine. I’ll get a shower after dinner.” She stopped and thought for a minute. “If I was running a traditional kitchen, I’d probably have you chop up some celery right now, and then saute it just until it starts to brown.” Chaeyoung laughed, obviously amused by this idea.

Jisoo was confused, not seeing at all why this was funny. “I don’t get . . . why is that funny?”

“Because celery doesn’t have enough sugar to undergo the Maillard reaction, so it won’t brown, no matter how long you stand there and stir it around in a skillet.” Chaeyoung paused to wipe away tears from how hard she had been laughing, then managed to regain her composure. “It’s partly a cruel joke, but also partly a test. If you already know celery won’t brown, you can say so, and that’s good. If you realize fairly quickly that the celery’s not going to brown, you can ask for help, and that’s good. If you just stand there and keep stirring and stirring and stirring, the chef will take you aside for a talk about the importance of understanding what you’re doing and asking for help when you run into problems.”

Jisoo nodded. “That makes sense.” She looked at Chaeyoung from under her bangs. “What happened when they did that to you?”

Chaeyoung looked a little embarrassed as she said, “I’d been sauteeing the celery for an hour when chef took me aside for that talk.” She chuckled. “Guess I was a little stubborn. Anyway, for tonight we’re going to make a quick gamjatang. Jennie and Lisa ‘accidentally’” - she made air quotes with her fingers - “drank an entire bottle of scotch between the two of them last night and Jennie’s still feeling it. A soup like that will help her feel better. You go get a jar of pork broth from the back fridge, 4 pork chops, 4 large potatoes, and a quarter of a cabbage. I’ll be gathering up the seasonings. Meet me back here once you’ve got everything.”

Chaeyoung had done such a good job of organizing and labelling everything that it didn’t take Jisoo long to find the requested ingredients.

“Quarter the cabbage, peel and quarter the potatoes. Debone the pork chops, put the bones in the stock bucket in the fridge, and quarter each chop.”

Jisoo grabbed her chef knife and got to work. As she chopped, Chaeyoung poured the jar of pork broth into a large pot on the stove and began adding seasoning to it. When the stew was starting to take shape, Jisoo found herself wondering about something Chaeyoung had said earlier.

“How do you accidentally drink a whole bottle of scotch? Even with two people?”

Chaeyoung started telling her about the fire ceremony, and Lisa’s goal for the season, and how the traditional shot for the ceremony had turned into two had turned into the whole bottle. Jisoo liked the sound of the ceremony and was sorry that they had missed it. She was also glad that Chaeyoung seemed to have recovered from whatever was bothering her earlier in the day.

“So what’s your goal for this season?” Jisoo asked.

Chaeyoung looked her up and down, then turned away to stir the soup. “I can’t tell you yet. But I’ve got a goal. How about you?”

“I’ll have to think about it. I’ve got some ideas.”

* * * * * *

Lisa finished getting two rooms prepped for the guests who’d be checking in the next day, then came downstairs to see if Jennie needed any help with anything. When she came into the lobby, she smelled the most delicious smell she’d ever smelled.

“What smells so good?” she asked Jennie when she got to the front desk.

Jennie sniffed. “It smells like Chaeyoung’s making gamjatang for dinner.”

“Gamjatang. Gamjatang.” Lisa examined the unfamiliar Korean word, trying to see if she can relate it to anything she’d already learned. “Gamja - tang. Gamja means potatoes. Is it something with potatoes in it?”

Jennie smiled at her, impressed. “Excellent! It’s a pork stew with potatoes and cabbage. I told Chaeyoung that I had a hangover this morning and she said this will help me feel better for our guests’ arrival tomorrow. What about you? Didn’t you have a hangover?”

Lisa laughed. “No way! I’m Thai - we can drink as much as we want and then bounce back ready to do it all again the next day.”

Jennie put her hand to her head, which was evidently still a little tender. “I’m not going to put that to the test - I still haven’t recovered from last night.”

Lisa stepped around the desk and started giving Jennie a shoulder rub. As her hands ran over the shorter girl’s shoulders, she could feel knots of tension and rub them away. “It’s still going to be light for a while,” she said. “Why don’t you go for a walk, get some fresh air. I’ve finished prepping the rooms, so I can stay at the desk in case someone calls.”

Jennie looked back over her shoulder at her. “Really? You’d do that?”

Lisa shrugged. “Sure! Why wouldn’t I? I’ve finished my work for the day, so I’m just killing time until dinner.”

“Thanks, Lise,” Jennie said, climbing down from her stool. “I doubt the phone will ring - it hasn’t all afternoon - but I’d still rather have someone here just in case, if I can. My laptop’s under the desk right there - you can use it if you want to go online.”

“Thanks!” Lisa said, returning Jennie’s smile. “Now get going while you’ve still got sunlight.”

As Jennie put on her coat and gloves, Lisa got the computer out, planning to write an email to her family and then sign into Duolingo for some more Korean practice. Only as it turned out, she didn’t really have much to tell her family - she didn’t want to tell them about getting drunk with her boss, and cleaning and prepping rooms didn’t make for an exciting letter. Then when she tried studying, she found that she couldn’t stay focused - apparently she’d studied as much Korean as her brain could absorb in a day. Sighing, she put the computer away and looked out the window. She thought back to her earlier conversation with Jisoo. She wondered what was going on with Chaeyoung and hoped that whatever it was, it was resolved soon - added stress from conflict within the staff was the last thing Jennie needed, with the season’s first guests arriving tomorrow.

* * * * * *

Chaeyoung let the gamjatang simmer for a while, stirring occasionally, tasting and adjusting the seasoning. As the stew cooked down, she and Jisoo sat the prep table and chatted. Chaeyoung was surprised to discover just how sheltered Jisoo was - this was her first time living away from home, and she’d never lived anywhere but Seoul. On top of that, she was the baby of the family - she had an older sister and an older brother. In a lot of ways, it was like Chaeyoung was the unnie - she’d been working at Fire Lodge since she was 16, and had lived in Australia and Korea, and had really had had to be responsible for herself in ways that Jisoo apparently never had. But was nice, though - Jisoo’s innocence let her be 4D in a way that Chaeyoung had never been able to. She found her spirits lifting just from being around the older girl.

As they sat in the kitchen chatting, waiting for the soup to finish cooking, Chaeyoung looked carefully at Jisoo, watching her reactions and expressions, trying to figure out if G-Dragon was right about Jisoo having fallen for her. She just couldn’t tell. It could be that she had fallen for Chaeyoung, but it could just as easily be that she was just a nice, friendly person and the way she expressed it - at least with regard to Chaeyoung - looked like having a crush. Either way, Chaeyoung was finding her a pleasure to be around. She’d make a good friend or a good girlfriend, whichever way things happened to end up, and she found herself relaxing and opening up in ways that she hadn’t since she and Jennie had decided they made much better friends than lovers.

As Chaeyoung finished telling a tale of one of last season’s escapades, Jisoo laughed and asked, “So wait a second: You’re gay, G-Dragon’s gay, Jennie’s bi, all the guests at the lodge that weekend were either gay or bi . . . is there anyone straight in this entire valley?”

Chaeyoung shrugged. “Possibly you, possibly Lisa - the Valley’s very popular with the rainbow crowd.”

“You mean possibly Lisa,” Jisoo corrected her. “I had a boyfriend for most of a week in middle school, and that was enough for me to figure out I’m not wired that way.”

“You should fit right in here,” Chaeyoung said. After a moment’s thought, she asked “Is there a girl waiting for you back in Seoul, or are you a free agent this season?”

Jisoo blushed and shook her head. “No, there’s no one waiting for me. This is going to sound kind of silly, but . . . part of the reason I decided to come work in the Valley is I was hoping to meet someone here.”

Just then the timer rang. “Soup’s ready,” Chaeyoung said. “You go gather up bowls, spoons, and napkins and go set the table. I’ll get the soup into a tteukbaegi and bring it up.”

As she transferred the soup from the pot to the earthenware bowl that had been warming on the back of the stove, Chaeyoung was silently cursing the inopportune timing of the alarm.

* * * * * *

As she wandered the trails right around the lodge, Jennie found herself thinking of Lisa. Was she just really nice? Or was there something else going on? Usually Jennie had pretty good gaydar, but for some reason she couldn’t get a good read on Lisa - maybe because she was Thai. And despite what she’d told Chaeyoung about the lodge’s relaxed policies where employee dating were concerned, she recognized that being pursued by the owner of the resort where she worked could very easily end up with Lisa feeling pressured into doing something she didn’t want to do. For the time being, then, the ball would have to remain firmly in Lisa’s court.

Having arrived at this resolution, Jennie happen to look up at the lodge and notice Chaeyoung waving at her from the back door. Her stomach reminded her that she hadn’t had anything to eat all day and she rushed up the trail and into the lodge.

Once the guests started arriving, the staff would start to take their meals down in the kitchen, but until then they were eating in the breakfast room, enjoying the view of the sun behind the mountains. After she hung up her jacket and washed her hands, Jennie was the last one into the breakfast room. Chaeyoung was already serving everyone steaming hot bowls of gamjatang.

“Mmmmmmm,” Lisa said, leaning over to sniff the steam rising from her bowl. “This smells delicious!” She picked up her spoon and tried a bite of the soup. “It’s wonderful! I’ve never tasted anything this good before!”

Jennie laughed. She wasn’t sure if “rapturous” was a strong enough word to describe the expression on Lisa’s face, or if she’d gone all the way up to “orgasmic.” Either way, she was definitely enjoying the soup.

“Well,” Jennie said, “it looks like we’re going to have to make gamjatang a regular item on the menu here.”

“Works for me,” Chaeyoung said. “A chef likes to know that her food is appreciated, and I’d say Lisa has left us in no doubt that this is appreciated. And the recipe is something that Jisoo will be able to do by herself in another week or two.” She smiled at her assistant, who blushed and accepted the compliment.

“Oh my God!” Lisa said, holding her hand in front of her mouth to hide the fact that she was talking with food in her mouth. “Jisoo, if you learn how to cook this, I’ll marry you!” Everybody laughed at this, though Jennie didn’t miss the fact that Jisoo’s eyes momentary flicked over to Chaeyoung to see how she reacted to this.

“So. . . who are our first guests this season?” Chaeyoung asked once the laughter had died down.

“Some of the girls from Twice,” Jennie said. “Jihyo and Tsuyu, and Dahyun and Chaeyoung. So until they leave you’ll have to be -”

“I’ll be Park Chaeyoung.” Chaeyoung said quickly. “I don’t like going by Rosé, and I won’t do it unless you force me.”

Jennie held of her hands. “OK. I can work with that. Anyway, for the next 3 weeks we’ll have everyone from Twice coming in shifts.”

“Why don’t they all come at once?” Lisa asked.

“They’ve got their own company to run,” Jennie said, “so they can’t all go away at once. They do special theme tours. One week they’re putting out-of-work actors in makeup and running their guests through a zombie apocalypse, the next week they’re taking them out hunting for aliens. They’ve done a fairy tale house and a sleepover party and a special trip to Canada. They’re always looking for something new and creative. I’ve tried convincing them to hold one of their events at the lodge, but they never will. I think they like having the lodge as their secret getaway, where they can come and recharge. And that’s fine too.”

“Anything else we should know?” Jisoo asked.

“Not you,” Jennie said. “But Lisa’s going to have to be on her toes with speaking Korean, because none of our first week’s guests speak anything but.”

“I think I’m ready for it, as long as no one expects me to talk too much.” Lisa said.

“Good.” Jennie said. “We should all get to sleep as early as we can tonight, because I don’t know what time they’ll be showing up tomorrow.”

Lisa and Jisoo fell silent as they finished their soup, leaving Chaeyoung and Jennie to carry the conversation - trying to provide useful information without overwhelming their assistants. And despite her joke earlier about marrying Jisoo, Jennie still wasn’t sure what Lisa’s preferences were.


	6. Chapter 6

When Jennie and Chaeyoung welcomed Jihyo, Tzuyu, and Dahyun in the lobby of Fire Lodge, it was more like a group of friends getting back together than a business owner welcoming customers, because in a lot of ways that’s what it was.

“It’s so good to see you again!” said Jennie. “But where’s Chaeyoung?” She looked around for the expected fourth guest. 

Jihyo got panicked look on her face, miming for Jennie not to bring up that topic and mouthing “Later.”

“She decided other things were more important than this trip,” Dahyun said, “and I’m better off without her anyway.” Dahyun and Chaeyoung had an on again/off again relationship. When they were together, you’ve never seen a more loving couple. And then they were apart, they could barely stand to be in the same room. Jennie made a mental note to call Chaeyoung and see if she wanted to reschedule for another weekend, hoping and praying she wouldn’t want a refund.

“I see some new faces here,” Tzuyu said.

Jennie startled, “Oh, yes. Sorry. This is Jisoo, Park Chaeyoung’s new assistant. And this is Lisa, my assistant manager in training.” Greetings were exchanged and soon Lisa and Jisoo were as much a part of the conversation as if they’d been around for years.

Jennie mentally ran through the preparations she’d made for the weekend’s guests. She knew what Jihyo and Tzuyu would want: Skiing from dawn to dusk, then dinner, then to retreat to their room for a night of romantic escapades - Jennie had deliberately put them at the far end of the hall, so they didn’t have to worry about disturbing anyone else. But she didn’t know about Dahyun. Usually Dayhun and Chaeyoung would keep each other entertained, but by herself, Jennie was afraid she’d either be a third wheel to Jihyo and Tzuyu or else she’d just hang around the lodge being bored. Jennie had to arrange something better than that for her.

As soon as she got a chance, Jennie drew Dahyun off into a side conversation. “So…” she began, “obviously your plans for the weekend are going to be a little different from last time you were here. Is there anything you want me to arrange for you?”

“I never had a chance of learn snowshoeing before, because some people didn’t want to. I think I’d like to give that a shot. Can you recommend someone in the Valley who could give me the basic lessons and then guide me on a hike?”

“Someone in the Valley?” Jennie laughed. “I can do better than that - I’ve got someone on staff who can do that for you, so long as you don’t mind that she’s still learning Korean.” As soon as Dahyun nodded her agreement to this, Jennie called Lisa over. “Lisa, how’d you like to go snowshoeing on company time?”

Lisa nodded. “Sure, what’s going on?”

Jennie instantly switched to manager mode and started firing off instructions. “You’ll be giving Dahyun basic snowshoeing lessons and then guiding her on a hike. Make sure her snowshoes fit properly and the bindings are on right. Take the route you took Tuesday, but be mindful of cross trails in case you need to cut the hike short to have her back in time for dinner.” Jennie switched her attention from Lisa to the other side of the room. “Jisoo! I need two box lunches with hot coffee packed for hiking.”

\----------------------

Jisoo was about to say yes and get to work when she heard Chaeyoung pop up from an animated conversation with Tzuyu and call back. “No way, boss-lady! You don’t order my people around! You order me around and then I order my people around. If you want me to be your executive chef, you’ve got to treat me like it. For all you know, I could need Jisoo to spend all afternoon browning celery for tonight’s dinner.” Chaeyoung winked at Jisoo, who smiled and blushed at the private joke.

Jisoo heard Jennie make an aside to Dahyun “You see what I have to put up with?” before she called back “Fine! Chaeyoung. I need two box lunches with hot coffee packed for hiking!”

Chaeyoung playfully saluted. “You got it, boss-lady!” She then walked over to Jisoo and gave her instructions. “Fried egg and avocado sandwiches, packed to be assembled right before eating. Hummus and pretzels for a side. Two thermoses each, one of coffee and one of hot cocoa. Backpacks and lunchboxes are in the same cabinet as the shopping bags. Now go for it - make me proud!”

Jisoo nodded, mentally ran through the instructions to make sure she didn’t have any questions, and said “Coming right up” before turning and heading for the kitchen.

After starting the coffee machine and putting milk on to boil for the cocoa, as she heated skillets for the eggs and began peeling and slicing an avocado, Jisoo began thinking about Chaeyoung. Apparently the other morning’s bad mood was just an isolated event and Lisa was right that it had nothing to do with Jisoo. Except for that one morning, she’d been friendly and joking with Jisoo, making their work fun. In fact, she’d almost begun to hope…

“No!” the interjection was punctuated by a clang as she threw the avocado pit, which hit the side of the organics bin and bounced in. Jisoo scolded herself as she put bread on to toast and cracked eggs into the skillets. “Chaeyoung is your boss. She’s friendly and funny, but she’s also beautiful and accomplished and totally out of your league. This is real life, not a light novel, so get your head out of the clouds and STOP BURNING THE EGGS!”

Jisoo dumped the rapidly blackening eggs into the organics bin, wiped out the skillets, and started over. She had just cracked the eggs into the skillets and salted and peppered them when she heard someone walk into the kitchen behind her.

“Hey!” It was Chaeyoung! “I heard you talking to yourself as I came down the stairs. Is everything okay?”

Oh no! Chaeyoung had heard her! How much had she heard? “Ummm…. Yeah. Everything’s fine. I’m almost done!” The need to say any more was eliminated by the coffee machine and the toaster going off at once. As Jisoo finished the eggs, Chaeyoung poured the coffee into thermoses and started grating chocolate into the milk, which had just come to a boil. As always, watching Chaeyoung cook was a treat for Jisoo: She was so at ease with the mechanics of cooking that it was almost as if she was dancing with the food.

As they worked together to put the finishing touches on the lunches and pack them into backpacks, Chaeyoung said “Good job. Now take these out to Lisa - if she’s not still in the equipment room she should be in the back meadow - and then you can take a break until 11, when you need to be down here ready to warm up soup if Jihyo and Tzuyu remember come off the mountain for lunch.”

“What about the dishes?” Jisoo asked, indicating the pot and skillets on the stove and the knife and cutting board on the counter.

“I’ll get them this time,” Chaeyoung said. “I’ve got some things I need to think about, and I always think better when I’ve got something to do with my hands. Now you’d better hurry and get going or else Dahyun’s going to finish her lessons and you’ll end up running up the trail to deliver these lunches.”

“I’m on it,” Jisoo said brightly. She took the backpacks by the straps and scurried off to find Lisa and Dahyun.

\----------------------

As Lisa puttered around finding the correct size snowshoes for Dahyun and adjusting the bindings to properly fit her feet, Dahyun studied her. She’s amazed by how this girl who literally towers over her - about 5 inches taller! - seemed as if she was smaller, awakening in Dahyun an instinct to protect her. She knew that part of this was being lonely and touch-starved since her latest breakup with Chaeyoung, but that didn’t make it any less real. Besides, what would be the harm of fling while away on vacation? So longer as they were both willing, there wasn’t any harm in it. And if Chaeyoung found out about it later and wanted to cause problems, Dahyun could also remind her that during the time of this trip, they weren’t together and so Chaeyoung had no right to say anything about anything.

“So Lisa,” Dahyun asked, “where are you originally from? I mean, since it’s obviously not Korea.”

“Oh, I’m from Thailand,” Lisa said brightly. “I’m going to school to be a resort manager. I had a chance to work here and snatched it up!” 

Dahyun didn’t think Lisa’s Korean was anywhere near as bad as Jennie had led her to believe it would be. Her grammar wasn’t entirely correct, and it’d probably be easy to find a subject she didn’t have the vocabulary to discuss, but she was certainly comprehensible. And she had such a cute accent! Dahyun couldn’t believe she was reacting this way to this girl she’d just met, but she figured “What the hell - it’s vacation - I’ll just go with it.”

“Your Korean’s pretty good,” Dahyun told her. “It’s a lot better than my Thai.”

Lisa blushed. “Thank you. How did you come to learn Thai?”

Dahyun laughed. “That was a joke. The only Thai I know comes from restaurant menus.”

They both laughed at this, Lisa’s laugh lifting Dahyun’s spirits and lifting her out of the bad mood she’d been in just a couple of hours ago.

Just then Park Chaeyoung’s new assistant (after a moment’s thought, Dahyun was able to remember her name) came into the equipment room carrying a couple of backpacks. “Hello,” she sang out. “I’ve brought your lunch!”

“Thanks Jisoo,” Lisa replied. “Can you just leave it on the bench there? We can’t put the backpacks on until we get our jackets on.”

“Sure thing!” Jisoo put the backpacks down and headed out.

“You about ready?” Lisa asked Dahyun.

Dahyun nodded vigorously. “Let’s go!”

They put on their jackets and backpacks then headed out the back door. Dahyun watched Lisa walking in the snowshoes and did her best to copy her. When Lisa looked back and saw how well she was doing, she said “It looks like you’ve already got the hang of it. What do you say we do the rest of your practice out on the trail rather than spending more time here in the yard?”

“Sure thing!” Dahyun was really getting excited by the prospect of being out in the backcountry with this Thai beauty. “Bring on the mountains!”

\----------------------  
Chaeyoung finished washing and drying the dishes and found herself no closer to having figured out what to do about Jisoo. She hoped that G-Dragon was right. But she didn’t know what she’d do if she opened up to Jisoo and it turned out that he’d been wrong. It had taken her the better part of a year to get over Jennie and she still wasn’t sure she was brave enough to love again.

But then she thought of Jiyho and Tzuyu. They’d met at Fire Lodge a couple of years ago. Jiyho had come with Chaeyoung and Dahyun and Tzuyu had come with her family. They met over cocoa after a day of skiing and by the end of the weekend they were dating. No one expected it, but it had totally worked out.

But what if they tried it and it didn’t work out? They’d still have to spend every day in the kitchen together. Something told her that wouldn’t be a recipe for a happy season. 

Just then the house phone rang. She hit the hands-free button and answered. “Kitchen! How can I help you?”’

“Hi Chaeyoung. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure! What do you need?”

“Actually, can you come up here and talk to me in person? Especially since unless you’ve changed, you’ve got me on speaker.”

“OK. I’ll be right up.” She quickly wrote some instructions for Jisoo and left them on the prep table, in case Jisoo got back before she did, and headed up to the front desk.

When she got there, Jennie looked calmer than Chaeyoung had seen her at any time this week. “You look good,” she said. “What’s up?”

“What’s up?” Jennie spun around. “The first weekend of the season is underway and everything going great! The guest are happy, you’re doing great as executive chef, Lisa and Jisoo are doing great, Chaeyoung rescheduled for another weekend rather than cancelling.”

Chaeyoung leaned on the desk, inclining her head toward Jennie’s. “You’re forgetting one thing.”

Jennie stopped suddenly. “What? What did I forget?”

“You forgot that I know you.” Chaeyoung said. “And that means I know you didn’t just call me down here so you could gloat about how the weekend is going. What did you really want me for?”

Jennie sat down facing Chaeyoung, her face suddenly serious. “I was wondering if you’ve thought any more about what I said the other day.”

“About Jisoo, you mean.”

Jennie nodded. “About Jisoo.”

Chaeyoung rested her chin in her hands. “I don’t think I’ve thought about anything else. I want to believe that G-Dragon is right about Jisoo, that you’re steering me in the right direction. But I can’t help thinking: What if one of you is wrong? What then?”

“But what if we’re not wrong?” Jennie smiled at her. “You might fail if you try, but you’ll definitely fail if you don’t.”

Chaeyoung shook her head, unable to believe she was trying this. “You’re right. I’ll talk to her tonight after dinner.”

Jennie smiled at her, her whole face lighting up. “That’s what I wanted to hear! Good luck!” 

\----------------------

Lisa paused at the top of a rise and looked back for Dahyun. She wasn’t far behind - if you didn’t know, you’d never guess that it was her first time on snowshoes. Once she caught up, Lisa gave her a moment to catch her breath and then asked “How are you doing? Are you up for another peak before lunch, or do you want to stop now?”

Dahyun’s eyes shone brightly with her excitement over the morning’s activity. Her cheeks were flushed. The lip balm she’d applied to protect her lips gave them extra splash of color. “Another peak?” she asked excitedly. “Bring it on!”

“OK,” Lisa said, taking a sip from her water bottle. “The next peak on the right is right there” - she pointed to a hill quite a bit higher than the one they were standing on - “follow the purple star signs to stay on the trail. There are a couple of really steep points where you’ll probably want to turn and walk sideways up them like a showed you so that you won’t slip.”

“All right! Let’s move out!” Dahyun spotted the first purple star and headed up that branch of the trail. Lisa fell in behind her and kept pace. Everything was glorious until they neared the top of the hill. Dahyun had turned sideways to negotiate a steeper section of the trail when the snow began to shift under her feet. Attempting to compensate, she shifted her balance too far and started sliding down the hill. She knocked Lisa’s feet from under her and the two of them tumbled down the hill until they came to rest, half-buried in the pile of snow that had come down with them, at the base of a giant fir tree. The tree’s branches hung down almost to the ground and formed a canopy over them, shielding them from the wind and dimming the sun.

“Don’t move.” Lisa instructed Dahyun. She quickly dug herself out of the snow, doing her best to jostle the smaller girl as little as possible. “Can you wiggle your toes?”

There was a brief pause while Dahyun checked this. “Yes, and fingers too.”

“Well, keep still.” Lisa said. She checked Dahyun’s legs and then arms and didn’t feel any obvious fractures. At the end of her examination, Lisa found herself lying on her side next to Dahyun, propped up on one elbow, looking down into Dahyun’s face. Still somewhat shaken from the fall, she found herself captivated by Dahyun’s bright red lips. She wondered what it would be like to kiss them, then without further thought leaned forward to do so.

As soon as her lips touched Dahyun’s, though, she realized what she was doing and jumped back as if she had gotten an electric shock. Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please don’t tell Jennie. I can’t afford to lose this job. I’m sorry.”

“Hey. Hey! It’s okay!” Dahyun practically had to scream to break through Lisa’s mounting hysteria. She reached up and wiped away the tears that had frozen on her cheek. “I’ve spent all morning wishing you would kiss me. Now please, come kiss me again, properly this time.”

Lisa leaned back down. She had never kissed another girl before - had never known that she’d wanted to - but she did her best to kiss Dahyun “properly.” She alternating kissing and nibbling on Dahyun’s lips. She caught Dahyun’s full lower lip between her teeth and gently sucked on it. As her tongue encountered Dahyun’s, their mouths came together and their arms wrapped around each other. For the next several minutes, they might as well have been the only two people in the world.


	7. Chapter 7

Jennie breathed a sigh of relief when Jihyo and Tzuyu came into the lodge just before lunch.

“I’m so glad you decided to come back,” she said.

“Well,” Jihyo said, “I had wanted to stay out and keep skiing, but someone” - she looked significantly at Tzuyu - “insisted we come back for lunch.”

“You can ski anywhere,” Tzuyu said, “but I can only get Park Chaeyoung’s soup here at Fire Lodge.”

“Well, even aside from the soup, I’m glad you’re here,” Jennie said. “I’m sure you’ve noticed the snow started within the last hour. They’re probably shutting down the lift even as we speak - there’s a blizzard coming in this afternoon.”

“A blizzard?” Jihyo looked concerned. “Is Dahyun back?”

Jennie shook her head. “No, she and Lisa are still out snowshoeing. They should get back just before the storm hits.”

“Should we go find them?” Tzuyu asked.

“That would be a bad idea. I know what trail they started out on, but there are half a dozen different side trails that they could have gone off onto. No, our best bet is to wait here and not put more people at risk. Lisa’s had blizzard survival training, so if they’re not able to make it back in time, she’ll be able to keep Dahyun safe.” Jennie hoped she was able to keep the worry she felt off her face - it wouldn’t do any good to have more people upset by the situation. “Why don’t you two go get cleaned up and then head to the dining room. I’ll tell Chaeyoung you’re ready for lunch.”

Hanging up their jackets and leaving their boots in the boot trays, Jiyho and Tzuyu went to go get changed into lounging clothes to get ready for lunch. As soon as they were out of earshot, Jennie got on the phone to the kitchen.

Once she got Chaeyoung on the phone, she said “Jihyo and Tzuyu are back. They’ll be ready for lunch in about 20 minutes.”

“Not a problem,” Chaeyoung said. “I’ve got soup ready to warm and two fresh loaves of bread just came out of the oven. But I hear in your voice that you’re worried about something, and I’m guessing it isn’t lunch. What’s wrong?”

“There’s a blizzard coming in this afternoon, and Lisa and Dahyun aren’t back yet.”

“What?” Lisa could hear Jisoo’s voice in the background. “We’ve got to go find them! Call out Search and Rescue! We’ve got to do something!”

Jennie sighed. “This is why I wish you wouldn’t always use the speakerphone. I’ll take care of things up here, you go try to calm Jisoo down. I’ll call when the guests are ready for lunch.”

“Sounds good,” Chaeyoung said. Jennie could hear her already starting to calm Jisoo down as she hung up the phone. 

Jennie crossed the lobby to the back window, hoping she would see Lisa and Dahyun coming in early. As expected, there was no sign of them. She wished she felt half as confident of their safety as she had tried to make everyone think she was.

\---------------------

Lisa and Dahyun looked up and noticed that the snow had increased from a few isolated flakes while they’d been snowshoeing to a steady fall.

“We should get back to the lodge,” Lisa said. “This could turn into something serious.”

“Let’s stay here a while longer,” Dahyun said. “Today’s forecast didn’t call for any bad weather, and I’m not in any hurry to get back to the lodge.” In response to Lisa’s curious look, she went on: “When we get back to the lodge, you’re an employee and I’m a guest, which puts certain limits on what we can do and when we can do it. Out here, we’re just . . . us. And I like that.”

Lisa nodded. “I like it too. I think. I mean, I’m not really sure what I mean. I’ve never been part of an ‘us’ before, and I didn’t expect that when I was, it would be as part of a gay ‘us’.”

“Do you have a problem with it?” Dahyun asked, fearing the worst.

Lisa paused, thinking for a moment. “No, I don’t. I’m just kind of surprised because it’s not something I’d ever thought about. I’d never considered that I might not be straight. But then I found myself wanting to kiss you. And I did, and I liked it. A lot.” She looked down and blushed.

Dahyun took her hand. “I liked it too. All morning, since you were next to me adjusting my snowshoes, I’d wishing that you would kiss me or that I could find some way to kiss you.”

Lisa smiled. “I’m sure even without the avalanche you would have come up with something.”

“I don’t know,” Dahyun said, interlacing her fingers with Lisa’s. “Even besides not knowing if I’d get you in trouble at work, or if you’d report me to Jennie and get me thrown out, there’s just something about you. I’m not usually shy when I like someone, but I am around you.”

Lisa laughed. “You? Shy because of me? That’s a laugh.” She leaned forward and planted a kiss on Dahyun’s cheek. “You’re so beautiful. Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

Dahyun looked down. “My ex-girlfriend didn’t think so.” She looked up, locking eyes with Lisa. “And besides, do you even own a mirror? You’re beautiful, and I think I’m lucky to be with you, even if it is just for the weekend.”

Lisa’s heart, which had been fluttering around in her chest, felt as if it had come to a sudden stop. Just for the weekend? How did those four simple words make her feel as if she had just received a death sentence? “A lot can happen in a weekend,” she said, hoping she sounded as if she believed it.

Dahyun scooted closer to Lisa and wrapped her arms around her. “It can indeed.”

Lisa returned the embrace, silently rocking Dahyun back and forth. She hoped Dahyun didn’t see what a fool she had been, automatically assuming that this - whatever “this” was, exactly - would last beyond the weekend.

Wrapped tightly around each other, neither girl noticed the snow increasing. 

\---------------------

Chaeyoung hung up the phone and walked over to Jisoo, who was hyperventilating and on the verge of panic. Not knowing what else to do, she wrapped her arms around her and began stroking her hair.

“Lisa and Dahyun are going to be okay.” She said. “They’ll probably get back here before the blizzard hits, and even if they don’t, they’ve got the lunches and thermoses you packed for them and Lisa knows what to do in case of a blizzard.”

Jisoo shuddered. “You really think so?”

Chaeyoung nodded. “I talked to Jennie just after she interviewed Lisa for the job. Jennie grew up at the lodge, spending nearly every day either on the trails or on the slopes, and she said Lisa knew more about winter survival than she did.”

Jisoo felt more comfortable - she didn’t know if it was a result of learning about Lisa’s survival skills or of Chaeyoung’s hug. Either way, she wrapped her arms around Chaeyoung and huddled in closer.

Chaeyoung enjoyed the moment of closeness with Jisoo, but in a way it felt wrong, like she was using the other girl’s fear as a reason to get to touch her. “Come on,” she said, disengaging herself from Jisoo, “we need to get lunch ready for everyone. Let’s warm up the soup, slice the bread, and take it all upstairs.”

Jisoo fetched jars of chicken noodle soup and tomato soup from the refrigerator, emptied them into pots on the stove, and started warming them, stirring occasionally. Chaeyoung sliced the bread and put it into baskets. Then she walked over to the phone and punched the button for the front desk.

“Still no sign of them. It’s a bit early though, and the snow’s not too bad yet.” Either Jennie was confident that Lisa and Dahyun were going to be okay or else she was trying to convince herself that she was.

“Okay.” Chaeyoung said. “Given the situation, I was thinking we should all eat lunch upstairs.”

“You won’t see anything but white, but I think that sounds like a good idea.”

“We’ll be up in just a few minutes. The soup’s warming up right now.”

“Sounds good.”

\---------------------

Dahyun shivered. Leaning against the tree, her arm around Lisa, holding her hand and talking had been so pleasant that she had no idea how much time had passed. Apparently it was quite a while, though, because there were several additional feet of snow outside their little bower. The snow was falling even harder and the wind had picked up - she could barely see five feet past the fir’s branches.

“That doesn’t look good,” she said, pointing out the weather to Lisa.

Lisa’s face turned pale. “It’s a blizzard. We’re stuck here for a while. We’re going to have to shelter here. Come help me get things battened down.”

Working quickly, they packed the snow at the edge of their open area to make a wall and gathered a pile of boughs to provide insulation. Once they had everything as secure as they could make it, they joined up back at the tree trunk. Covering themselves with the fir boughs, they snuggled up to conserve their warmth and prepared to ride out the storm.

“We should eat something,” Lisa said, suddenly realizing she hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast.

Dahyun nodded in agreement and they both took out their lunchboxes.

“You should probably eat the egg now,” Lisa said. “The toast and avocado won’t be hurt by letting them get colder, but the eggs will just turn to rubber.”

They ate their eggs and washed them down with a few sips of their coffee. Dahyun put her arm around Lisa and rested her head on her shoulder. Even though Lisa was the one with all the practical knowledge of what to do in this situation, that didn’t stop Dahyun from continuing to feel the protective feelings toward her that she’d noticed this morning. “It can’t keep this up for too much longer, can it?”

Lisa looked thoughtfully out at the snow - the longer she looked, the more nervous Dahyun got. Finally she spoke. “Most blizzards last just a few hours, but they can last for days.”

Dahyun shuddered. “I hope this one doesn’t last for days.”

Lisa tickled Dahyun. “And just a little while ago you were saying you wanted to stay out here a while.”

Dahyun smiled weakly up at her. “Staying out here by choice is different from being trapped out here.”

Lisa leaned down and planted a kiss on the smaller girl’s nose. “At least you’ve still got me.”

Dahyun returned Lisa’s kiss. “That’s true. I don’t know what I’d do out in a blizzard without you, and I’m in no hurry to find out. A blizzard alone is too close to a horror movie for my tastes.”

“You don’t like horror movies?”

Dahyun shuddered. “No way. They’re scary!”

Lisa laughed softly. “That’s kind of the point.”

“Well I don’t like it,” Dahyun said. “Why would anybody want to be scared.”

Lisa shrugged. “Sometimes it can be fun.”

“Well, I don’t think so,” Dahyun said, cuddling closer to Lisa. After a moment’s thought, she looked up into Lisa’s eyes. “While we’re waiting, why don’t you tell me more about your life in Thailand?” she asked. “I’d like to get to know you better.”

“Sure. What do you want to know.”

Dahyun sighed. “Everything.” This was so unfair - how could she only have one weekend with this girl? That wasn’t right, was it?


	8. Chapter 8

Jisoo stood looking out at the storm. She’d seen snow before, but never like this. The snow in Seoul was quiet and civilized, turning everything a beautiful white for a couple of hours, then disappearing. This snow was primitive and powerful, screaming between the trees and piling up wherever anything got in its way. Jisoo shuddered, thinking of how scared she would be if she was in Lisa or Dahyun’s place right now. The shudder turned into a shiver that wouldn’t stop. She jumped, startled, as Chaeyoung wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.

“Come on,” she said, leading Jisoo away from the window. “Let’s get you some soup.”

Leading Jisoo to the table, Chaeyoung made sure to seat her in a chair facing away from the window. She went over to the soups that she was keeping warm on the sideboard and poured a mug of tomato soup for Jisoo. Coming back to the table, she sat down next to Jisoo and put the mug in front of her.

“There you go,” she said. “That’ll warm you up.”

After Jisoo sat staring at the soup for several long moments, Chaeyoung reached over and grabbed her hands, wrapping one around the handle of the mug and the other around the body of the mug. “Drink your soup,” she said. “Don’t make me feed it to you.”

Jisoo looked down at her soup as if seeing it for the first time, brought the mug to her mouth, and drank. The soup was delicious, and she felt the warmth of it all the way down.

“Lisa and Dahyun are out in this,” she said, her eyes wide and haunted-looking. “They’re out in this storm and we can’t do anything to help them.”

“Their not out in it like you’re thinking,” Chaeyoung said, as Jisoo drank some more of her soup. By now Lisa will have found them some sort of shelter and they’ll be protected from the worst of the storm. Just you wait - tomorrow they’ll be back with nothing worse than an interesting tale to tell.”

“I just can’t imagine,” Jisoo said. “It looks horrible.”

“It’s really not as bad as you think,” Chaeyoung said, to which Jisoo looked dubious. “Really, it’s not.” Chaeyoung looked thoughtful for a minute. “Tell you what,” she said, “there’s really nothing for us to do now, but once the storm’s over, there’ll be plenty to do, so why don’t you go take a nap for a while.

Jisoo shook her head, her eyes wide. “No way. There’s no way I could sleep through this.”

“You’d be surprised,” Chaeyoung said. She took Jisoo’s hand and led her up to her bedroom in the attic. Opening the door, she was pleased to see that Jisoo was in one of the rooms without a window; that would make things easier. Leading the way into the room, she guided Jisoo to lie down on the bed and then covered her with the blanket. 

“Have a good nap. I’ll be down in the kitchen if you need me.”

Jisoo reached out with both of her hands and grabbed Chaeyoung’s hand. “I know this is stupid and silly and unprofessional of me, but I don’t care. I don’t want to be alone right now. Will you stay here with me, just for a little bit?” Jisoo scooted over, making room in the bed for Chaeyoung, and patted the bed next to her for Chaeyoung to lie down. Chaeyoung lay down on top of the blanket and stared at the ceiling as she felt Jisoo cuddle up next to her.

\--------------------------

Dahyun and Lisa sat and talked, watching the snowfall intensify. Dahyun told Lisa about the special adventure trips that Twice planned for people, and Lisa told Dahyun about her time working in a Thai resort. By a sort of unspoken agreement, neither of them brought up Chaeyoung until darkness was falling and all other topics of conversation had been exhausted.

“You know what’s really funny?” Dahyun asked. “I almost didn’t come this weekend.”

“Really?”

Dahyun nodded. “Chaeyoung and I were supposed to come here today, so once that wasn’t going to happen, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to come at all. Jihyo and Tzuyu are the ones who convinced me to come.”

“Looks like I’d better write them a thank-you note when we get back to the lodge.” Lisa smiled impishly.

“You and me both,” Dahyun said. “I know we just met, but already I can’t imagine not knowing you.”

“I know what you mean,” Lisa said. “It’s like. . . intellectually I know we just met, but inside there’s a part of me that feels like I’ve known you forever.” Lisa laughed. “Oh great, now you’ve got me sounding like a character from a Nicholas Sparks novel!”

They both had a good laugh at this, and spent the next half-hour trying to imagine what it would be like if Richard Sparks wrote a lesbian romance. They were in agreement that it would be spectacularly horrible.

Lisa looked out at the storm as the sky continued to darken. “It looks like we’re going to be here overnight. We’d better start taking turns getting some sleep - the walk out’s going to be a hell of a lot harder than the walk in was.”

They each wanted the other one to get to sleep first, so in the end they decided to settle it by rock-paper scissors. This provoked another round of shared laughter, as their first half-dozen attempts all resulted in a tie. Finally a result was achieved - Lisa was sleep first while Dahyun kept watch, then they’d swap in a couple of hours.

After Lisa dozed off, Dahyun sat and watched her sleep for a while. She looked so beautiful, so peaceful. Dahyun didn’t know what she’d do when the weekend ended. She’d seen too many long-distance relationships work out badly to be eager to get into on, but on the other hand, she’d never met anyone like Lisa and she wasn’t ready to give up.

After a while she realized that she was starting to circle back to the same arguments so she pushed the subject out of her mind, hoping that by the next time she thought about it she’d have gained some new insight. To kill time, she investigated the survival kit that had been packed in her pack along with lunch. There was some paracord, a first aid kit, a parka, an emergency blanket, a whistle, and some waterproof matches. Matches! That’s it - she’d surprise Lisa by making a fire!

After gathering a supply of firewood from under the tree, she scraped the snow away to reveal an area of bare ground. She then started by lighting a small pile of leaves, adding twigs to that little blaze, then tiny sticks, then progressively larger sticks until she had a cheerful fire burning within their shelter.

\--------------------------

Jennie was staring into the whiteout conditions outside, imagining that each thing she glimpsed that wasn’t white was Lisa and Dahyun. She couldn’t even remember what color jackets they were wearing! As the afternoon wore on, the snowfall thickened so that occasional things glimpsed through the snow were replaced with occasional things she imagined she glimpsed through the snow. It was bad enough that as much as she wished Lisa and Dahyun were back, she hoped they’d found a spot to hunker down. Suddenly she was startled out of her reverie by the telephone.

“Fireside Lodge,Jennie speaking.” As surprised as she was by the phone ringing, she was also happy because it gave her something to do besides stare out the window and brood.

“Hey Jen-Jen!” It was G-Dragon.

“Hey yourself. What’s going on?”

“I heard on the radio that you’re getting some rough weather down in the valley. Did you get all your people in before the storm hit?”

Jennie shuddered. “Are you psychic or something?” When he didn’t answer, she went on. “I’ve got 2 people - one staffer, one guest - who were out snowshoeing and haven’t returned.”

“Not that it matters, but: Anyone I know?”

Jennie shook her head, not even thinking about the fact that he couldn’t see her. “It’s Lisa, my new assistance, and Dahyun from Twice - did you ever meet her?”

“No, but I’ve heard you talk about her. Anyway, I’ve got my snowmobile gassed up and loaded on the trailer. As soon as the storm lets up, I’ll be headed your way.”

“G, you don’t have to do that. They’re within a morning’s walk of the lodge, so they can’t be too far.”

“They could be further than you think,” he said, “and because they’re close to the lodge, that’s all the more reason to get them in before they start losing fingers or toes. And besides, if I’m not helping you, I’ll be out volunteering with Ski Patrol, so you might as well let me help a friend here.”

Jennie recognized from G-Dragon’s tone of voice that there was no way she’d change his mind, and besides, the sooner Lisa and Dahyun were found, the better she’d feel about it. “Thanks a lot, G. You’re a great friend.”

“Not a problem,” he said. “Once I make it big, I’ll come stay at the lodge every winter and bring my entire entourage with me. But until then, I’ll just help out however I can.”

“Well, thanks,” Jennie said again. “Just don’t leave before it’s safe. We don’t need you lost in the storm as well.”

“Hey, you know me!”

“Exactly, and that’s why I’m worried.” They both laughed. “See you soon, G.”

Jennie looked around the lobby. Jihyo and Tzuyu had apparently gone back to their room. Chaeyoung and Jisoo had disappeared to somewhere. She had the lobby and the great room - with its floor to ceiling windows providing an amazing view of the storm - all to herself. She wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered. Losing a guest was every resort operator’s biggest fear, on top of which Dahyun was her friend and Lisa was. . . was. . . She was whatever she was to her now, which Jennie didn’t even know what it was, and if they didn’t find her she’d never find out.

\--------------------------

Lisa was on a white, featureless hill, surrounded by other hills. On one of the other hills, she saw Dahyun - or maybe Jennie, she couldn’t really tell - waving at her. Lisa set off walking in that direction, but by the time she reached the top of that hill, Dahyun/Jennie was at the top of the next hill. They had carried on like this for a while when it started to rain. Not a proper rainfall, just a drop or two that always seemed to hit Lisa in the face. This carried on for a while longer until Lisa suddenly realized that the hills and Jennie/Dahyun were a dream, but the drops of water were real. She opened her eyes and saw the fire that Dahyun had going underneath the canopy. It was melting snow in the tree that was raining down on them - that’s what had woken Lisa up.

“Dahyun,” she said, to no response.

“Dahyun! Dahyun!” Lisa got progressively louder and louder. Finally Dahyun turned toward her but she just stared, not saying anything.

Quickly realizing what was happening, Lisa grabbed Dahyun’s hand and pulled. Dahyun staggered to her feet and followed her out into the storm. Leaving Dahyun standing in the blowing snow, Lisa rushed back into their shelter, kicked snow onto the fire, grabbed their backpacks, and rushed out. By this time, Dahyun was starting to realize what was happening.

“What the hell?” she yelled over the storm.

“You lit a fire in our shelter!”

“It was just a small fire. I kept it under control.”

“It was filling the shelter with carbon monoxide! We almost died!”

As the realization of what she had almost done hit her, Dahyun’s face fell and her shoulders slumped.

“I almost killed us,” she said, just barely audible above the storm. She started crying. “You must think I’m horrible person. I’m so, so sorry!”

Lisa gathered Dahyun into her arms. “Dahyun!” She practically had to scream to break through the other girl’s hysteria. “Dahyun!”

Dahyun pulled back and looked into Lisa’s eyes.

“Did anyone ever tell you not to build a fire in a survival shelter?”

“No.”

“Did I ever tell you not to build a fire in a survival shelter?”

“No.”

“Then how would you know?”

Dahyun just blinked at her as she struggled to process this idea. 

“We can talk about it more once we get out of the snow. Come on, there’s another tree right over here. We can make a new shelter.”

Thanks to the wind and snow, this shelter took longer to make than their first one had, but soon enough they were nestled under a tree, insulated by boughs they’d gathered.

Lisa turned to Dahyun. “Are you okay?”

Dahyun had already fallen asleep leaning against the trunk of the tree. Lisa sat down next to her and put her arm around her. “There’s nothing like a close brush with death to make you appreciate your life more,” Lisa thought. “If Dahyun thinks I’m just going to be a weekend fling, she is oh so very wrong. If she wants to get rid of me, she’ll have to prove that she doesn’t want me, not just that the world is making it difficult for us.”

\--------------------------

As soon as she could feel that Jisoo had gone to sleep, Chaeyoung eased out of the bed and made her way down to the kitchen. It had taken every bit of willpower she had to keep from rolling over and grabbing Jisoo and covering her with kisses until she was okay. As it was, she and Jisoo had done so many things today that would have gotten them fired anywhere but the Fire Lodge. She wondered if Jisoo was even aware of the effect she had on Chaeyoung, She was a puzzle - one minute she was a cultured city girl, the next she was an innocent fish out of water. She didn’t know what Jisoo wanted from her, and she wasn’t sure that Jisoo knew what she really wanted, which meant Chaeyoung had to step extra carefully - words and signals that she’d feel confident in interpreting from any other girl could mean something totally different coming from Jisoo.

After she finished the lunch dishes, Chaeyoung decided to make another soup. They had plenty of tomato and chicken noodle soup in the fridge, but she needed to cook, so they were going to have another soup. After a few minutes of thought and a brief tour of their food supplies, she settled on a shrimp bisque. That would be delicious, a nice change from lunch, and most importantly, would require a fairly high amount of work from Chaeyoung. Gathering all her ingredients, she stood at the prep table and started shelling and deveining the shrimp. 

As she worked, cleaning, chopping, slicing, sauteing, she found herself thinking about Jisoo. She still didn’t know what to do. G-Dragon and Jennie were both so certain that Jisoo was interested and Chaeyoung should make a play for her, but the more time she spent around Jisoo, the more she found herself wondering if they were right. She desperately wanted them to be right, but she didn’t want to have to deal with a negative atmosphere in the kitchen for the rest of the season if she tried and they were wrong.

Chaeyoung had the soup almost finished - the cream and seasonings would simmer for the next half hour, and she’d just chopped the shrimp, which would only be added in the last 3-4 minutes - when the phone rang. She hit the hands-free button with her knuckle and called out “Hello?”

“Hello?” It was Jisoo. “It’s Jisoo. I’m awake now. I’m sorry about earlier. Is there anything you need me to do right now?”

Chaeyoung looked around. Other than washing her knife and the cutting board, she had nothing to do for the next half-hour. “No, nothing,” she she, and then mentally kicked herself for not coming up with some excuse to get Jisoo down to the kitchen. “I’ve just got to wait for this bisque to finish simmering. If you want to come downstairs and keep me company, I’d like that.”

“Sounds good,” Jisoo said. “See you in a few minutes.” And she hung up the phone.


	9. Chapter 9

While Dahyun slept, Lisa leaned against the tree and watched the storm. The swirling snow outside matched the turmoil she was feeling inside. This was also going so fast, and in ways she’d never expected. And since the whole thing was happening during a storm when she was having to babysit someone who was, quite frankly, totally clueless about wilderness skills, this was the first chance she’d had to really think about things.

She had enjoyed kissing Dahyun. She knew that. But beyond the fact that Dahyun was part-owner of a travel agency and had just gone through a bad breakup, she really didn’t know all that much about her. Well, she knew that she was pretty and had lips that looked like they were just begging to be kissed, but that much was obvious just by looking at her. Lisa thought some more. Part of her mind kept wandering back to her time kissing Dahyun, but she kept dragging that part back to paying attention to other things. If she did stay involved with Dahyun, which she wasn’t even sure she wanted to, did she want to be just a weekend fling? Or did she want more? And what are the odds she’d actually get more if she tried for it? From what Jennie had said, Dahyun and her Chaeyoung had a history of splitting up and getting back together. That could be something really nasty to get in the middle of, especially since she’d be at a major disadvantage if it came down to any sort of competition with the mysterious Chaeyoung: Lisa didn’t have that history with Dahyun, and plus she’d be far away while Chaeyoung would be right there.

She tried to imagine what Jennie would do in this situation, and realized that she already knew, or at least knew the basic summary of: Jennie and Park Chaeyoung had dated, but one or the other or both of them had figured out that they weren’t a good match, and so they’d split up, but split up in such a way that they were still good friends and still working side by side every day.

Lisa felt Dahyun stir next to her and she knew what she had to do.

“Dahyun, you awake?”

“Yeah. What’s up? Any change in the storm?”

“Not yet, but I need to talk to you about something.”

Dahyun turned to face Lisa. “I recognize that tone of voice - I’ve got a feeling you’re about to tell me something I won’t like.”

Lisa nodded. “You probably won’t. I’ve been thinking about you and me - about us. And I’m not really sure we should be an us. In fact, the more I think about it, the more confident I am that we shouldn’t.”

Dahyun stared deep into her eyes. “Can you explain?”

Lisa took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, then tried to return Dahyun’s gaze. She took another deep breath and began “You gave me my first kiss, and that will always be something that ties us together, but I need time to stop and think about things. I’m not sure you and I will ever be more than friends, but I do hope we’ll be friends. And if we ever are more than friends, it won’t be right now.”

\--------------------  
Jisoo washed her face and checked her hair in the mirror. Should she put on makeup? She decided to put on eye makeup but nothing else. A few quick swipes and everything was ready.

She went down the stairs to the basement and found Chaeyoung sitting on a stool by the stove.

“How’s it going” Jisoo asked. “Any news?”

“Not yet. It’s still snowing, the same as it was.”

Jisoo came and stood by Chaeyoung.

“How are you handling everything?”

Chaeyoung took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Pretty well, all things considered. How about you?”

Jisoo shook her head. “No, I mean literally - how are you handling everything? How do you do all the things that need to be done when you know that Lisa and Dahyun are stuck out in this storm?”

Chaeyoung shrugged. “I don’t know. I just do. I mean, it’s not going to make Lisa and Dahyun any safer if I spend all my time staring out the window and let everyone go hungry.”

Jisoo nodded. “That makes sense. I just don’t know that I can do that. I keep imagining that I’m out there and how scared I’d be.”

“But like I told you earlier, you haven’t had the training that Lisa’s had. Also, it helps to keep busy. That’s why I made another soup, and why you’re about to help me make bread, as soon as I finish up the soup..”

Chaeyoung stirred the soup, scooped out the shrimp shells, and added the chopped shrimp. Then she covered the pot, turned off the stove, and left the pot sitting on the hot eye.

“Okay. Bread. Go get the large mixing bowl. Measure 2 cups of warm water into it, then dissolve a little over half a cup of sugar in it, then pour in a packet of yeast and stir. While we wait for that to be ready, we’ll premeasure the other ingredients.”

Together they measured out cooking oil, salt, and 6 cups of bread flour. By the time they finished this, the sugar and yeast mixture was merrily foaming away in the bowl. Chaeyoung had Jisoo stir the salt and oil into the yeast mixture, then the flour, one cup at a time.

“That’s looking good,” Chaeyoung said. “Now flour your work surface and turn the dough out onto it.”

Jisoo filled the sifter and dusted the prep table with a thin, even coating of flour. She picked up the bowl and tried to pour out the dough. Instead of pouring out as a liquid, like she had expected, it clung to the inside of the bowl until she’d tipped it far enough that the whole thing fell out and landed on the table with a satisfying thump.

Chaeyoung nodded her approval. “Now flour your hands and start kneading the dough.”

Jisoo coated her hands with flour and started patting at the dough, not really sure exactly what kneading entailed.

“Harder!” Chaeyoung said. “You’ve got to really work the dough.”

Jisoo drew her hands back and start slapping at the dough.

Chaeyoung laughed. “I said knead the dough, not assault it.”

Jisoo stopped and looked at Chaeyoung. Blowing aside a strand of hair that had fallen in her face, she said “I don’t really know what kneading is. I’ve seen people knead bread before, but I don’t really know how what they were doing is different from what I was doing. And you laughing really doesn’t help!”

\--------------------

Jennie sat looking out the window, first hoping and then imagining that the slow was slowing. After a while, her mind started wandering. She thought back to a time about 5 years past when she and Chaeyoung had gotten caught in a blizzard.

It was Chaeyoung’s first year working in the kitchen at Fire Lodge, and she and Jennie had quickly become friends. By the third week of the season, it had become usual that unless Jennie and Chaeyoung were both working, they were both in the same place. Rather than fight the inevitable, Jennie’s parents had collaborated with the head chef - had it been Jean-Luc or Dominic that year? - so that Jennie and Chaeyoung worked identical schedules, so they never had to deal with the girl who wasn’t working distracting the girl who was supposed to be working.

One day, she and Chaeyoung had gone snowshoeing on their day off. Unfortunately, they hadn’t checked the weather before starting out and so they were just about to start heading back when the bottom fell out of the sky. Visibility was down to about 10 feet. The girls tied themselves together so they didn’t get separated and set out to find some sort of shelter to protect them from the storm.

Before too long, they found an old, abandoned storage shed and went inside. Though the building was enough to protect them from the snow, it wasn’t enough to provide any sort of warmth. So they cuddled up together to share their warmth as best they could while waiting for the storm to subside. As they lay in each other’s arms shivering, they started talking. Given that this was the longest uninterrupted stretch of privacy they’d ever had, they had a chance to share secrets they’d never told before. And that’s how it came out that they both liked girls. In fairly short order, cuddling and talking had turned into cuddling and making out. By the time the storm ended, Jennie had asked Chaeyoung to be her girlfriend and Chaeyoung had said yes.

At first it was wonderful - Jennie’s parents pretended they didn’t know about what the girls were doing, so they got to have the fun of sneaking around trying to keep their relationship a secret. And when they finally did get busted making out in a broom closet, Jennie’s parents were totally cool with the whole thing. (Chaeyoung’s parents didn’t know, but at the same time, as long as Chaeyoung stayed out of major trouble, they let her take care of herself.) But soon things started to go sour. There was no single big thing either of them could point to, just a ton of little things. It all finally blew up one weekend when one of them - they both knew which one it was, but neither of them would say it out loud - started yelling at the other for talking to the daughter of one of the guests. The conversation was totally innocent, but there was no going back to the way things were before.

Jennie happened to glance up at the clock and realized how much time had passed while she was thinking about the past - far more than she’d like to admit to. She shook her head to clear away the bad memories and went back to watching the storm.

\--------------------

Chaeyoung managed to stifle her laughter. Flouring her hands, she rounded the prep table to stand next to Jisoo.

“Sorry for laughing,” she said. “It’s just, I’d never seen anyone slap at bread dough like that. Let’s do it together and you should be able to get a feel for it.”

Chaeyoung took Jisoo’s hands in hers, marvelling at how small the other girl’s hands were, and pushed them into the dough. Working together, they pushed and folded and pressed and punched down the dough. After a few minutes, she pulled her hands back to watch Jisoo try it on her own. Seeing some areas that needed fixing, she grabbed Jisoo’s hands again and guided her through the end of the process.

“There,” Chaeyoung said. “Now we let it rise for an hour, then we bake it.”

They stood looking at the dough they had just made together, and it took a couple of minutes before Chaeyoung realized she was still holding one of Jisoo’s hands. Since Jisoo was making no effort to pull away, she adjusted her grip, interlacing her fingers with Jisoo’s.

“What are you thinking now?” Chaeyoung asked, turning to look into Jisoo’s eyes.

Jisoo looked back at her, her brown eyes shining in the kitchen light. She took a deep breath, swallowed, and said, “I was just thinking that if you weren’t my boss, I’d ask if I could kiss you.” As if she’d just realized what she said, she cringed and ducked her head, her hair falling over her face.

Chaeyoung reached out and lifted Jisoo’s face, leaving a smudge of flour on her chin. She brushed Jisoo’s hair aside and tucked it behind her ear. “Jisoo, look at me,” she said. “Do I look upset by what you just said?”

Jisoo shook her head, her face a curious mixture of worried and hopeful.

“What if I said I’d like us to pretend I’m not your boss, at least for now. Do you think you could do that?”

Jisoo nodded, a look of comprehension spreading across her face. 

“Chaeyoung?” 

Chaeyoung felt butterflies in her stomach on hearing her name in Jisoo’s mouth.

“Chaeyoung, may I kiss you?”

Chaeyoung was just barely able to get out a quiet “yes” and she leaned in, her mouth seeking Jisoo’s. At first, their lips just barely brushed each other, each afraid of scaring the other off. Much to Chaeyoung’s surprise, it was Jisoo who made the first move, sucking gently on Chaeyoung’s bottom lip. When Jisoo released it, Chaeyoung bit Jisoo’s bottom lip and pulled slightly before tentatively advancing her tongue and touching Jisoo’s lip with it. Jisoo responded with her own tongue, eagerly and aggressively claiming Chaeyoung’s mouth. Eventually, though, they both needed to breathe, as if by common agreement they both pulled their heads back at the same time.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” Jisoo said.

“Oh, I think I do,” Chaeyoung said, “Probably for about as long as I’ve wanted to.”

“That night we stayed at G-Dragon’s,” Jisoo said, “I felt sure you were going to kiss me then, but then I fell asleep.”

Chaeyoung shook her head. “Even if you hadn’t fallen asleep, I wasn’t ready then.”

Just then the phone rang. Chaeyoung reached out and hit the speakerphone button with the back of one of her knuckles.

“The snow’s stopping,” Jennie said. “Why don’t you get everything locked down in the kitchen and come get ready for the search? G-Dragon’s coming with his snowmobile, but I’d really like if we could find them before he gets here.”

“You got it,” Chaeyoung said, pressing the button to disconnect. Looking around the kitchen, it took Chaeyoung just a moment to assess what needed to be done. After stealing a quick kiss, she said “Put the bread dough back in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge. I’ll go take care of the soup.”

Smiling, flour-dusted, they set about setting the kitchen right.

\--------------------

Dahyun blinked several times, as if she was holding back tears by sheer force of will. “Well,” she began, “I can’t say this is unexpected, but that doesn’t make it any more unwelcome.”

Taking one of Lisa’s hands in both of hers, she went on. “I mean, you’re just discovering your sexuality, I’m just coming off a bad breakup - it’s not exactly a situation that screams ‘stability’! At first, I thought you’d just be fun to be with for the weekend, sort of a vacation fling. Then I got to know you and I started to hope that there could be more to us than that, even though I knew it probably wasn’t a good idea.”

She pulled one hand away to quickly wipe her eyes, then went back to holding Lisa’s hand.

“And now? Now I’m so messed up in the head that I don’t know what I want or what would be a good idea. I hate to think this, but you’re probably right that it’s best for us to call this whole thing off now, before we get any deeper in and really hurt one another. I don’t want to hear that, but I know it’s probably true. But I just want you to know something.” She clasped Lisa’s hand more tightly and looked even more intently into her eyes. “I will always cherish the time we had together, and anytime we’re near each other, whether because I’m at Fire Lodge or because you’ve come to Seoul, if you ever want to talk - or possibly something more - all you’ve got to do is knock on my door.”

Dahyun finally lost the battle with her tears and started crying. Lisa wrapped her arms around her and let her cry on her shoulder. After a while the initial flood of tears slowed to a trickle, and in between sniffles she was able to talk. “I know I’ve got no right to ask this - and I understand if you want to say no - but can I give you one last kiss?”

Hesitantly, Lisa nodded. “I think that would be okay. And we don’t know that it’s the last last. It’s just the last for now.”

Pausing for a moment to take this in, Dahyun leaned in to press her lips against Lisa’s. This kiss was just as sweet as any other they had shared, but also bitter, watered by her tears. 

When they separated, Dahyun had to look away - she knew if she looked Lisa again, she’d start crying again, and she didn’t want that. Looking out into the storm, she could see trees that she hadn’t seen previously. “Is it my imagination,” she asked, “or is the storm letting up?”

Lisa looked out into the storm, judging the intensity of storm and the speed of the wind. “It’s dying down. Are you ready to try to make it back to the lodge?”

When Dahyun nodded yes, Lisa turned her jacket inside out to expose the bright orange lining and used a length of rope from her backpack to tether Dahyun to her. Putting on the backpack, she stepped out from under the tree and said “Let’s go. I don’t know about you, but I could use a hot bath.”

Dahyun stepped out and followed her. “That sounds heavenly. I think we both got more than we bargained for on this trip.”

\--------------------

Meanwhile, at Twice’s headquarters, Son Chaeyoung was sitting in the media room watching Jisook’s Table for One.

Jeongyeon walked in behind her and saw what she was watching. “What’s this?”

Chaeyoung didn’t even look away from the screen. “It looks like I’ll be spending a lot more time alone now, so I figured this could be useful.”

“With Christmas coming up?” Jeongyeon scoffed. “Hell no. Mina and I want you to join us.”

Chaeyoung shook her head. “No. I’d just be a third wheel. I’d get in the way.”

Jeongyeon sat down on the arm of the chair and put her arm around Chaeyoung’s shoulders. “I don’t think you were listening to me. Mina and I. Want you. To join us.”

Chaeyoung looked confused for a moment, until she suddenly realized what Jeongyeon was saying. She opened her mouth to respond.


	10. Chapter 10

Jennie bent down to adjust the bindings on her snowshoes, then stood up to look at Jisoo and Chaeyoung.

“Lisa and Dahyun should be on the purple diamond trail,” she said. “I know the lay of the land better than you do, so I’ll walk the trail backward and you’ll walk it frontward.” She pulled a GMRS radio out of her pocket, fiddled with it for a second, and then put it away. “Before we move out, make sure you’ve got your radio and that its batteries are fully charged.”

As she checked her radio, Jisoo asked “Why didn’t Lisa have a radio?”

“Good question,” Jennie said. “I should have told her to take one, but then again I shouldn’t have had to tell her. There’s plenty of blame to go around.” But one look at Jennie’s face showed that she was ready to accept all the blame herself if anything had happened to Lisa or Dahyun.

Just then Jihyo and Tzuyu came to the door, dressed for trekking. “We’re ready to help look for Dahyun and Lisa,” Tzuyu said.

“But we’ve got everything covered,” Jennie said. “I don’t want more people out on the search than I have to - I don’t want to have to worry about you too.”

“But you don’t need to worry about us,” Jihyo said. “We’re both fully capable of taking care of ourselves. We’ve been coming here for years.”

Jennie put her hand to her forehead as if she was getting a headache. “That’s true,” she said. “But I’d still worry about you.”

Jiyho opened her mouth to respond, but Jennie kept on, steamrollering over any response she might have been about to make. “As a favor to me, please stay here. If we haven’t found them by the time G-Dragon shows up, then we’ll be in more of a position of needing all hands on deck and I’d be happy to have you come out. Deal?”

Before Jihyo could argue, Tzuyu said. “Deal. Do you have another radio so that we can keep track of the search?”

“There’s one on the main desk. And thank you for understanding.”

Tzuyu smiled at Jennie as she took Jihyo by the arm and led her back into the lodge.

“Okay then,” Jennie said, ‘unless you’ve got any questions, we should get on the trail.”

Chaeyoung stepped up to Jennie and quietly said “Don’t worry we’ll find them.”

Jennie nodded, as if willing it to be true. “I know. Are you sure you should bring Jisoo?”

Chaeyoung looked over at Jisoo and then back to Jennie. “She needs to learn, and this is as good a time as any. If she knows more about the backcountry, she won’t be as likely to panic in future situations.”

Jennie shrugged. “Well, if you’re sure. Let’s get going.”

Jennie headed off down one, apparently unmarked branch of trail, turning back every so often to check for markings to be sure she was on the right path. Chaeyoung and Jisoo set off down the other branch of trail, Jisoo leading the way with Chaeyoung behind her so that she could keep an eye on her and offer suggestions.

\--------------------

Chaeyoung and Jisoo headed up the trail, keeping their eyes open for the purple diamond markings. After about 20 minutes, Jisoo called for a stop so she could get some water. Chaeyoung caught up with her and took a sip of water from her own bottle.

"How are you holding up?" she asked.

"Not too bad," said Jisoo. "I jog in the city, but this is quite a bit harder."

"Well, be sure to pace yourself - we're likely to be out here the rest of the day and I don't want to have to drag you out."

"Would you really do that?"

"Oh sure," Jisoo said. "I'd cut down some fir boughs, lash them together to make a sled, and drag you behind me. I'd get us both back, but I wouldn't be terribly happy about it."

Jisoo cringed inside her parka. Chaeyoung noticed and came up and wrapped her arms around her. "Hey," she asked, "am I really that scary?"

Jisoo shrugged. "No. . . yes. . . maybe. . . I don't know."

Chaeyoung took a step back and looked Jisoo in the eyes. "I've never had anyone think I was scary before. I don't think I like it. Can you explain?"

Jisoo thought for a second, then took a sip of water to buy herself a little more time to think. "It's kind of hard to explain. I've never felt this way with anyone else I've dated - not that I'm saying we are dating - I mean, I'd like to, but we'll have to talk about that once we get back to the lodge - but anyway," Jisoo's words came tumbling out in a torrent as she tried to explain the complex feelings she was feeling. "you're my boss as well as - hopefully - my girlfriend, and it feels like you've got all the power in our relationships, and that's not a comfortable feeling for me."

Chaeyoung stood in stunned silence for a moment, trying to understand just what Jisoo was trying to say with this wall of words that dwarfed anything she'd said since the start of the season. "I think I can see what you're saying," she said once she'd puzzled it out, "and I think I've got something that will help. How about this: I promise I won't let events in our social life affect how I treat you in our work life, and vice versa. Or at any rate, I'll try my damnedest not to. Does that help?"

Jisoo managed a smile and nodded. "It does. It helps a lot."

Chaeyoung enfolded Jisoo in another hug. "Good," she said, "and you be sure to call me on it if I break that promise." She put her water bottle away and looked around. "If everything's okay with us," she said, "we'd better get moving. I know it's not a competition, but I'd still like to find Lisa and Dahyun before Jennie does.

"Then let's go," Jisoo said with a mischievous grin as she took off jogging up the trail.

Chaeyoung shook her head and took off after her. It seemed like Jisoo was always going to be full of surprises.

\--------------------

Dahyun struggled to pick up her snowshoe and once again put one foot in front of the other. It was much tougher to snowshoe through the several feet of soft snoe that had been dropped by the blizzard than it had been before the blizzard. On top of which the blizzard had blown heaps of snow against the tree trunks to a height of 6 feet or more, making it necessary for one of them - usually Lisa, despite Dahyun's best efforts to do her share - so snowshoe up to each tree and brush the snow off of it in order to check for the purple diamonds that would guide them back to the lodge.

Dahyun had tried several times to start a conversation with Lisa about what their future relationship would look like, especially once they got back to the lodge, but each time Lisa said they needed to save their breath for walking and brushed off Dahyun's efforts to communicate. She hoped that when they got back to the lodge they'd find a few minutes to talk about things again. She hoped she was wrong, but it looked like Lisa's strategy was to avoid conversation for the remainder of Dahyun's time at the lodge. Well, that wouldn't really be possible at a resort as intimate as Fire Lodge, and it wasn't fair.

Dahyun's reverie was suddenly interrupted by a faceful of snow. Apparently she had been concentrating too much on her thoughts, not enough on her surroundings, and had caught the edge of one snowshoe on the back of the other and tripped herself. Before she had time to get herself up, Lisa was by her side, helping her to her feet.

"Are you okay?" Lisa asked, the concern on her face evident. "Do you need to stop for a rest?"

Dahyun finished brushing the snow off her face before she answered. "I'm okay. Just not paying as much attention as I should."

Lisa nodded. "What we were walking on yesterday was beginner-level snow. Today we're walking through expert level snow. Let me know if you ever need to take a break - if you get too tired, you'll start falling down all the time, even when you're paying attention."

Dahyun shook her head. "I'm fine, at least for a while longer. Maybe when we get to someplace a little more shelter from the wind we can stop and take a rest."

"That sounds like a good idea," Lisa said. "We might even find someplace where we can make a fire and have a little warmth."

"That sounds great," Dahyun said. She was hoping that when they stopped that she and Lisa would be able to talk. Either that, or she'd have confirmation of Lisa's attention to avoid talking to her. Only time would tell, and in the meantime, it took all of her attention to keep putting one foot in front of the other without tripping again.

\--------------------

Jisoo caught on to the rhythm of snowshoeing fairly quickly and the miles started flying by. From time to time they'd have to stop to knock the snow off the trees so they could see the blazes, but most of the time the wind had apparently been blowing the other direction, because all the snow was on the other side of the trees.

"You doing okay up there?" Chaeyoung called up from behind.

"Just fine. You need to stop?"

"Just for a minute."

Jisoo stopped at the top of the next rise and waited for Chaeyoung to catch up.

"If you keep going at that pace, you're going to end up dragging me out of the woods!" Chaeyoung said, as she gasped to catch her breath.

"Do I need to slow down?" Jisoo asked. "I was going about as fast as I could, because you said you wanted to find them before Jennie did."

Chaeyoung took a swig of her water before holding the bottle out to Jisoo. "If you could dial it back just a smidge, I'll be fine. Apparently I didn't train hard enough in the off-season."

They got a good laugh out of that.

Chaeyoung reclaimed her water bottle and reattached it to her pack. "Let me do a radio check with Jennie and then we can be on our way."

Chaeyoung detached her radio from her pack strap, checked to be sure it was still on the right channel, and thumbed the transmit button. "Jennie, how's it going? And sign of them yet?"

After a brief wait, Jennie's voice came back through the radio: "Nothing yet. We've got to be getting close, though."

"Definitely," Chaeyoung responded. "One of us should catch sight of them within an hour."

"Agreed. Well, let's get moving."

"You heard the lady," Chaeyoung said as she clipped the radio back on her strap.

"She'll catch sight of them within an hour," Jisoo said as she started up the trail, "we'll catch sight of them within 45 minutes." She couldn't explain how it was that she had caught Chaeyoung's competitive spirit, but she had: If it was important to Chaeyoung to find Lisa and Dahyun first, then it was important to her too.

At the top of each rise, she looked as far ahead as she could, to see if she could spot any signs of Lisa and Dahyun. At first it was an unvarying scene of trees and snow, but after about twenty minutes, she thought she saw a spot of orange against the horizon. She didn't say anything about it until they got to the top of the next hill, where she realized that not only could she still see the orange, but it was slightly closer. Stopping to let Chaeyoung catch up, she pointed out the orange spot. "Do you think that's them?"

Chaeyoung nodded excitedly. "It's got to be. You feel up to picking up the pace again, to get us within shouting distance?"

Jisoo threw her arms around Chaeyoung in an exuberant hug, then turned and started off down the trail again. "You got it!" she called back.

Each time they saw the orange blob, it was a little bit closer. Soon it became apparent the blob had arms. Then it became apparent that it had legs, though they were harder to see by virtue of not being orange. Soon after that, Jisoo judged that they must be within shouting distance, so she cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled as she ran "Lisa! Dahyun!"

\--------------------

Lisa felt kind of bad about avoiding a conversation with Dahyun, but she knew her limits. Right now she had enough strength to snowshoe out of the woods or continue to say no if Dahyun tried to win her back, but not to do both at once. A big part of that was that part of her wanted Dahyun to win her back - she knew that all the reasons she had given Dahyun of why they should break off their whatever-it-was were good and true reasons, but it was hard to listen to them because the consequences were far away and Dahyun's lips were right here. Who knows: The way she was feeling right now, if they started that conversation, she might end up begging Dahyun to take her back. No, the thing to do was to postpone the conversation as long as possible. Hopefully until after they'd gotten back to the lodge and gotten a meal and some sleep, but at least until they'd stopped and built a fire and caught their breath.

As the afternoon began its downhill slide toward evening, Lisa hoped that they'd be able to make it back to the lodge before dark. Besides the discomfort of spending another night sleeping on the frozen ground, there was the fact that they'd eaten the last of their food to power this day's snowshoeing. And on top of that was that she didn't know what would happen if she and Dahyun had to spend another night huddled together for warmth.

Lisa was snapped out of her thoughts when she thought she heard something behind them. She stopped and looked back. Was that something moving? When Dahyun caught up, Lisa said "Be quiet. I think I heard something behind us."

They stood still, being as quiet as possible, listening. Lisa was about to give up and mark it down as her imagination when she heard a voice from behind them "Lisa! Dahyun!"

She and Dahyun looked at each other as if to say "Did you hear that?", their eyes lighting up. Lisa pointed to a hilltop about a mile back and shouted "Look! There!" They both started jumping up and down and yelling "Here! Over here! You found us!"

In just a few minutes, they could see two people coming over a hill behind them. A couple of more minutes and they could see that it was Jisoo and Chaeyoung.

"Hey!" Jisoo called out as the other pair approached. "Are you two okay?"

"Nothing a hot bath and a mug of soup won't cure," Dahyun responded.

"Well, those will have to wait until we get back to the lodge, but until then I've got energy bars and water."

"That sounds good too," Lisa said with a laugh.

As they munched on their energy bars, they could hear Chaeyoung on the radio, apparently talking to Jennie. "Yeah, we found them . . . yeah, they seem to be fine . . . if we're where I think we are, we're about half an hour away from you." Once she finished with the radio, Chaeyoung called out them "Ready to head back to the lodge? Follow me!" and started down the trail.

As they fell in line behind Chaeyoung, Jisoo sidled up next to Lisa and said "When we get back, I've got something exciting to tell you."

Lisa's eyes grew big. "That's just what I was about to tell you!"


	11. Chapter 11

Dahyun found herself walking by Chaeyoung, with Lisa and Jisoo walking behind them. She and Chaeyoung known each other for several years, and Dahyun considered Chaeyoung a friend. Therefore she didn't feel that there was any reason not to tell Chaeyoung about her adventure with Lisa, including all the "good parts."

"So what are you planning on doing now?" Chaeyoung asked.

"I don't know," Dahyun said with a shrug. "She wants to break things off now. Part of me thinks she'd probably right, but another part wants to fight for her. Any suggestions?"

Chaeyoung laughed. "I'm probably the last person anyone should ask about relationship advice, especially for things that require perception and insight. Maybe when we meet up with Jennie you could ask her."

At the top of the next hill, Chaeyoung looked ahead and saw Jennie heading toward them. "When they met up with Jennie, she greeted Dahyun with a hug. "I'm so glad you're safe," she said.

"I wouldn't have been if not for Lisa," Dahyun told her. "She was a lifesaver."

"Lisa," Jennie called out, as Lisa and Jisoo were just joining the group. "Good job bringing our guest back safely."

Lisa blushed. "Thank you," she said, "but I really feel like I could have done better."

"That's possible," Jennie said, "and we'll discuss it later. For now, you brought Dahyun back, apparently unharmed. Just take the win."

Lisa nodded.

"Well," Jennie said, "I think we've got just enough daylight to make it back, so let's move out."

They headed out, walking single file so they could make better time. Jennie led the way, with Dahyun behind her, then Chaeyoung, then Lisa, then Jisoo bringing up the rear.

As soon as they reached a wide spot in the trail, Dahyun sped up so she could walk beside Jennie. "I've got to talk to you about something," she said. She told Jennie about what had happened with Lisa on the trip, and where things stood now, and how she wasn't certain what she should do from here.

Jennie walked in silence for a minute. Finally she said "Let me think about it, maybe talk to Lisa, and I'll tell you what I think before I go to bed tonight."

Dahyun had hoped Jennie would have a more definitive answer than this, but given that Jennie had only known Lisa for a week longer than Dahyun had, this was about as definitive as she was going to get.

"You talked to Chaeyoung about this?" Jennie asked.

Dahyun nodded. "She suggested I ask you. She also said that she was the last person anyone should ask for relationship advice."

Jennie nodded. "That makes sense." At Dahyun's quizzical look, she went on. "You remember that Chaeyoung and I used to date, right?"

Dahyun nodded.

"Well, she still blames herself for us splitting up, and in some ways she still hasn't recovered from it - she's no good at telling when someone's interested in her, because she doesn't imagine that anyone could be."

"That's so sad," Dahyun said. "I had no idea."

"Well," Jennie said, "I can't really go into detail about it, but I think she's starting to get better."

 

*   *   *   *   *

Lisa found herself looking at Jennie every chance she could. She couldn't believe that she'd never noticed how pretty Jennie was - apparently her new knowledge that she liked girls (or at least liked girls too) was coloring her perceptions. Thinking back over her interactions with Jennie, she supposed that subconsciously she must have known, and her efforts to make Jennie happy were in fact an effort to win her heart. Now there was just the matter of what to do with this new knowledge. She knew from what Jisoo had told her that Jennie was bi, but she didn't know how Jennie felt about getting involved with her employees, or if she was Jennie's type, or if she even wanted to try for this. She sighed - life was so much simpler two days ago.

Jennie maneuvered until she was walking by Lisa. "Penny for your thoughts," she said.

Lisa laughed. "Isn't it funny that we use that figure of speech even though we don't use pennies?"

"It sounds better than 'Ten won for your thoughts," Jennie said, shrugging. "And don't think I didn't notice that you're avoiding my question."

Lisa thought for a long moment. "I've got something that I'm going to want to talk to you about, but it'll have to wait until we get back to the lodge. I want to have some privacy when I talk to you, and I need some time to figure out exactly what I want to say."

"Fair enough," Jennie said. "Whenever you're ready, just find me."

Jennie fell back to walk beside Jisoo, leaving Lisa alone with her thoughts.

As they continued on their way back to the lodge, Lisa kept turning the situation over in her mind. She found herself replaying every interaction she'd had with Jennie. And as she replayed them, she noticed a pattern: Every single one of them was ambiguous. Every one of them could be consistent with Jennie being personally interested in Lisa, or instead consistent with Jennie being professionally interested in Lisa and just happening to be a very friendly person. She hoped that she'd find something in one of them that would tilt the scales one way or the other, but if there was, she wasn't seeing it. "If only," Lisa thought. "If only every situation was as easy to decode as the one with Dahyun had been. But I guess I can't expect every girl who's interested in me to fall down a hill and knock me off my feet." She laughed quietly to herself, then suddenly fell silent as another thought entered her head: What would Jennie think if she knew about what had happened with Lisa and Dahyun? Would Dahyun tell her? Should Lisa tell her? Why couldn't things be simple?

With all the thinking Lisa was doing, they were back at the lodge before she knew it - and certainly before she had an answer to her dilemma. Jihyo and Tzuyu came out on the porch to greet them, along with a red-haired man who must be G-Dragon. After the initial greetings, Jennie shooed everyone back indoors. "Come on, people," she said "Dahyun and Lisa have been out in the snow since yesterday morning. Let's get them inside and warm them up."

*   *   *   *   *

Jisoo heard Chaeyoung calling her. "Come on, Jisoo. Let's go get started on dinner."

Jisoo followed Chaeyoung down to the kitchen, which was starting to feel like a comforting, familiar place.

"Get the pots of soup of the fridge and start warming them up. Oh, and turn the oven on to be preheating for me. I'll start rolling out the breadsticks and we should have them done by the time the soup gets warm."

After turning the oven on, Jisoo got each pot of soup out and carried it to the stove. She went to the utensil drawer to get large spoons to stir with. While she waited on the soup, she turned and watched Chaeyoung roll out the breadsticks. She'd cut off a ball of dough, roll it out into a stick, roll the ends in opposite directions to twist it, then lay it out on a baking sheet. The pan was already half-full of breadsticks, and Chaeyoung turned out another in the time it took Jisoo to turn toward her. After rolling out a few more breadsticks, Chaeyoung noticed that Jisoo was watching her.

"What is it?" she asked.

Jisoo shrugged. "I just like watching you work. It's like your hands are dancing with the food."

Chaeyoung blushed. "That's sweet," she said. "Just don't get so caught up in watching me that you let the soup burn."

Jisoo turned around and stirred the soups, around the edges and then back and forth across the middle, making sure nothing stuck to the bottom.

Chaeyoung brought the pan of breadsticks over and put them in the oven. "Okay, those should be ready in about 15 minutes. Now come here for a second."

Jisoo went over and stood in front of Chaeyoung, wondering exactly what was going on now.

Chaeyoung reached out and stroked Jisoo's hair. "You did a good job out on the search today, and you're doing a lot better in the kitchen. I know I don't always hand out praise as much as I should, so I wanted to be sure to tell you that."

Jisoo smiled. "Thank you. That really means a lot. Do we have time to talk for a minute while the breadsticks are baking?"

"Sure let me just set the timer so we don't burn the breadsticks."

As Chaeyoung set the timer, Jisoo pulled a couple of stools over by the prep table.

"After our talk on the trail, I've got an idea where this conversation is going," Chaeyoung said. "Do you want to go first, or should I?"

Jisoo thought for a second. "I want to go first." She took a deep breath. "I've had a crush on you since I first met you. I tried to make it go away, but it wouldn't. I want to be with you to whatever degree you'll let me, whether that's for a week or a season or something more." She stopped suddenly, the avalanche of words coming to a stop. "Your turn."

Chaeyoung smiled. "You've certainly made this easy for me, and at the same time more difficult. I want you," she said, looking deep into Jisoo's eyes, "for as long as you'll have me. I-"

Whatever Chaeyoung was about to say next was cut off by the simultaneous sounds of the timer and of someone coming down the stairs.

*   *   *   *   *

Jennie started for the kitchen as soon as she heard one of the showers shut off. She knew that as soon as Dahyun and Lisa finished showering, their food would need to be ready right away if there was any chance of them eating before they fell asleep. She could hear Jisoo and Chaeyoung talking as she came down the stairs, but whatever they were saying, it was cut off by a timer ringing just as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"We're almost ready," Chaeyoung said as she pulled a pan of breadsticks out of the oven. "If you want to help, you can start loading bowls, spoons, and napkins in the dumbwaiter. Jisoo, start loading up the soup. As soon as I get the breadsticks in a basket, I'll come help out."

With a minimum of wasted effort and almost zero getting in each other's way, the three of them soon had everything loaded up. They sent the dumbwaiter up to the dining room as they headed up the stairs.

When they reached the dining room, Jisoo and Chaeyoung started unloading the dumbwaiter and setting the table for dinner. Jennie went to the lounge to call everyone to dinner. She was glad to see that Lisa and Dahyun were down, warming themselves by the fire, and was surprised to see that G-Dragon was still there.

"Jiyong," she said, "I would have figured you'd be out with ski patrol by now. It's not like you to miss a chance to go snowmobiling."

He shrugged. "Believe it or not, they said they didn't need me. I'm not particularly heartbroken over it through - Chaeyoung's soup isn't something to miss."

Tzuyu elbowed Jihyo in the ribs. "See? I'm not the only one who loves Park Chaeyoung's soup."

Jennie laughed. "Then you'll all be happy to hear that she's got three types of soup plus fresh breadsticks waiting for you in the dining room."

As everyone left the lounge for the dining room, Jennie waited to the side and caught Lisa by the arm, holding her back. "I need to talk to you for a minute before dinner," she said.

Lisa nodded. "Sure."

Jennie guided Lisa to the couch, then sent down next to her. "I just needed a moment to ask a couple of serious questions before we go in to dinner."

Looking nervous, Lisa nodded.

Jennie took a deep breath. "First of all, are you okay? Any injuries or anything? How's your state of mind?"

Lisa smiled. "I'm fine. Really. Except for having been cold and hungry for most of the time, it was actually a pleasant trip."

Jennie nodded. "That's good. Now, I'm afraid this next question is going to seem insensitive, but I'm afraid I have to ask: Did anything happen that could open up the lodge to a lawsuit? Anything that could be classified as reckless endangerment on your part or sexual harassment on her part?"

Lisa shook her head. "Not at all." In an apparent attempt to lighten the mood, she smiled and said "If anything, it was reckless endangerment on her part and sexual harassment on my part."

Jennie's mood was not lightened by this attempt at humor. "I think," she said, "you'd better tell me everything that happened, starting from the time you left yesterday morning."

So Lisa did. Everything, with no attempts to leave anything out or to recast things to make herself look better: The avalance, the first kiss, the subsequent kisses, the fire, the break-up.

When she was done, Jennie said. "Thanks for telling me everything. Nothing happened this time for you to be in trouble for, but in general it's a bad idea to get involved with guests. Now let's go get some dinner."

Lisa nodded. "Sounds good."


	12. Chapter 12

Jisoo watched everyone at the table as she quietly ate her soup. G-Dragon was as boisterous as he'd been the first time she saw him. Right now he was telling a story about his first time out on a search and rescue with the ski patrol. Jihyo and Tzuyu were listening to him, in between feeding each other bites of soup. Chaeyoung had obviously heard the story before, because she was interjecting at all the appropriate times. Jennie, Dahyun, and Lisa, on the other hand, seemed to be listening to the story with only half their attention, as if the main part of their mind was elsewhere. If it had been just Dahyun and Lisa acting this way, she would have chalked it up to them being tired from their recent adventure. But the fact that Jennie was acting the same way made the whole thing strange. Jisoo suspected it was related to the exciting news that Lisa wanted to tell her when they could get some time and privacy, but since that wouldn't be until after the guests checked out tomorrow, there was nothing she could do about it now.

She turned her attention back to her rapidly cooling bowl of shrimp bisque. She stirred it with the end of her breadstick and then took a bite. The process of cooking never ceased to amaze her. Somehow when a handful of simple ingredients were combined in a certain way, they made something far greater than the sum of its parts. She didn't have too much time to ponder the mysteries of cooking, though: She was ravenous after all their snowshoeing today, so she quickly finished her soup and got up for another bowl. While she was up, she refilled the bowls of anyone else who wanted more, which turned out to be everyone but Jennie, Dahyun, and Lisa, who were still halfway through their first bowls. Curiouser and curiouser.

One by one - or in the case of Jihyo and Tzuyu, two at once - everyone finished eating, said their goodnights, and drifted off to their rooms. Jennie tried to get G-Dragon to stay the night and then drive back to town tomorrow, but he refused, saying his shop had already been closed one day, he couldn't afford a second one without a good reason. Even the promise of Chaeyoung's French toast in the morning wasn't enough to get him to stay. He said his good-byes and left, but not before Jennie had extracted a promise from him that he would text her when he got back to town.

After everyone else was gone, Jisoo and Chaeyoung gathered up the dishes and the leftovers and sent them down the dumbwaiter. When they got down to the kitchen, Jisoo put the soup in the refrigerator and the breadsticks in the breadbox while Chaeyoung got started on the dishes. Chaeyoung tried to shoo Jisoo out, saying she'd take care of the dishes, but Jisoo wouldn't hear of it.

"If you won't let me help you with the dishes," Jisoo said, "the least I can do is stay down here and keep you company."

"I've got an idea," Chaeyoung said. "You make us some cocoa and after I finish the dishes we'll go sit out on the back porch, watch the stars and talk."

"Yes, Chef!" Jisoo said with a wink as she went off to gather the ingredients for cocoa.''

* * * * * *

Jennie went to Dahyun's room, totally unsure of what she was going to say, but aware that she had to have this conversation, and she had to have it now. She knocked on the door and Dahyun answered in her nightgown.

"Oh, hi!" said Dahyun. "I'm glad you stopped by. Come in." Her eyes, though, said to Jennie "I wish you were somebody else" so clearly that the words were unnecessary.

"I was just waiting until everyone was out of the way before I came to talk to you about this," Jennie said as she shut the door behind herself.

Dahyun sat down on the bed, then patted the bed to indicate that Jennie should sit on the bed next to her. "I hope you're bringing me good news," she said.

Jennie took a deep breath, not entirely sure what to say. "I'm not sure," she began. "I've been turning it over in my head since we got back to the lodge and I'm not sure what to say."

"It should be fairly easy, shouldn't it?" ask Dahyun, apparently confused by Jennie's indecision. "It's a simple yes or no question, isn't it? Should I make a play for Lisa or not?"

Jennie shook her head. "It's not that simple. That question is actually a number of different questions with a number of different answers. Do I think it would hurt Lisa if you tried for her? No. Do I think you'd stand a chance of success? I don't know. Do I want you to try for her? No. Am I being completely fair in my answers? I don't know." Jennie trailed off, as if she was a wind-up toy that had run down.

Dahyun looked even more confused than before as she ran through this string of questions. "You don't think Lisa would be hurt if I try for her. You don't know that I'd succeed if I tried, but you don't know that I'd fail either. And you don't want me to try, but you don't think it's fair of you to ask that. . . " She paused for a minute, until she apparently figured it out and a smile spread over her face. "You're interested in Lisa!"

Jennie nodded. "I am. I spent the entire past week trying to figure out if she was straight or not - which apparently I couldn't figure out because she didn't know herself. But if you could have seen the way she acted toward me, you'd probably agree that we'd be good together. I really like her a lot, and so that's why I wanted to ask you to leave her alone, but I know that's not fair to ask of you, especially considering the events of the last couple of days."

"I can totally see where you're coming from," Dahyun said, "and I think I've got a compromise that we both can live with." She paused for dramatic effect. "I won't chase after her, but" - she held up a finger for emphasis - "but, if she chases after me, I'm not gonna turn her away."

Just then there was a knock at the door, followed by Lisa's voice: "Dahyun! Are you still awake?"

Dahyun looked around the room in a panic. "Oh, you're already here! Could you please just wait a minute?"

She grabbed Jennie's wrist, pulled her across the room to the closet, and shoved her inside, whispering "be quiet!" as she shut the door.

* * * * * *

Lisa heard Dahyun skittering around her room, getting ready to let her in. She hoped Dahyun wasn't doing anything special or romantic - she didn't want this conversation to be any bigger of a deal than it was already going to be. A quick and simple conversation was probably out of the question, but Lisa figured she'd consider it a victory if no one burst into tears.

"Here I come!" And just like that Dahyun was opening the door and beckoning Lisa inside. Lisa noticed Dahyun's long white fleece nightgown. It said "Dreamy-eyed idealist" on the front, which she thought was a pretty good description of Dahyun. And while there was nothing wrong with that, it wasn't what Lisa thought she needed. She needed someone practical. Someone more like Jennie-unnie.

"Are you coming in, or are you going to stand in the hall all night?" Lisa realized that her thoughts had been wandering. Dahyun was waiting for her to come in, so she did, and closed the door behind her.

"When we were out on the trail, I promised you a conversation tonight, so I'm here for it, if you've got time right now."

"You don't have to sound so excited about it," Dahyun said. "You sound like a student who's been sent to the headmaster's office."

Lisa laughed. "Not, it's not like that at all. I'm just really tired." She made a show of yawning and rubbing her eyes.

"Well, if you think you can stay awake, we can sit down over here and talk," Dahyun said, gesturing toward the bed.

Lisa sat down on the edge of the bed. Dahyun sat down next to her and tucked her legs underneath her.

"So . . . what on your mind?" Dahyun asked.

"I've been thinking about us. . ." Lisa began hesitantly.

Dahyun nodded quietly, giving Lisa time to gather her thoughts and continue.

"I don't regret what we did."

"Well, that's a glowing endorsement," Dahyun said, throwing up her hands.

"No, it's not like that," Lisa said, laughing. "Everything's coming out wrong."

Dahyun reached out and rubbed Lisa's arm. "You're doing fine. I'm just messing with you; I'm sorry. Keep going."

"I've been thinking," Lisa said. "I enjoyed our time together, but you're going to be leaving tomorrow. You're going to be in Seoul and I'll be here at Fire Lodge. I don't even know when I'd see you again."

"That's true," Dahyun said. "But if we wanted to make it work, we could do it. We can skype. Maybe I can come back before the end of the season. You can come to Seoul when the season's over. . ."

"That would still mean we'd only get to see each other once or twice in the next four months! That's not what I want for my first girlfriend!"

"But, we could . . ." Dahyun began, then trailed off when she saw that Lisa was shaking her head.

"I was hoping not to say this, trying to let you down easy, but the fact of the matter is . . . I think I'm interested in someone else."

Dahyun sat back, seeming to collapse in on herself. "From discovering you're a lesbian to deciding you're with the wrong woman in less than 36 hours - you don't waste any time."

Lisa grabbed Dahyun's hand. "You see, that's why I didn't want to tell you that. I didn't want you to feel bad about our time together. You're still the first woman I kissed, and I don't regret that one bit. I still want for us to be friends. I just don't think a relationship with you is what I want or need right now."

Dahyun looked up and Lisa and smiled weakly, obviously trying to put on a brave face. "So. . . do I know this other woman?"

Lisa nodded. "I think I'm in love with Jennie."

* * * * * *

Chaeyoung and Jisoo were huddled together under a blanket on one of the chaise longues on the back deck, each holding a big mug of hot cocoa.

"The stars are beautiful tonight," Jisoo said, leaning her head on Chaeyoung's shoulder.

"You're beautiful tonight," said Chaeyoung, leaning over and kissing Jisoo on top of her head.

Jisoo cuddled closer to Chaeyoung. "You make me feel so good," she said.

Chaeyoung took a sip of her cocoa. "There's. . . you put. . . Irish whisky in this?"

Jisoo looked up at her and nodded. "Yeah. I thought it'd be nice to have something a little special to celebrate our first night together."

Chaeyoung took another sip. "It's really good. Did you have anything else special planned for tonight?"

Jisoo shook her head. "I can't really plan too much. We've got to be up early to fix breakfast before the guests check out."

Chaeyoung gave Jisoo another kiss. "Good girl! I'll make a chef of you yet!"

Jisoo took a big gulp of her cocoa. "I did have one thing I wanted to try tonight."

"What's that?"

"Well, I really liked it last night when you laid down in my bed with me, but we were afraid to touch each other because we didn't know how the other one would react. Tonight I'd like to try that again, but I want to cuddle you and have you cuddle me."

Chaeyoung laughed. "We can definitely do that - and we'd better do it soonish or I'll fall asleep right here and lose the tip of my nose to frostbite."

'We can't let that happen!" Jisoo said. "You've got such a cute nose, it'd be a shame if anything happened to it."

"I'm kind of attached to it myself," said Chaeyoung, laughing some more. "Let's finish our cocoa and then go in. Do you want to go to your room or mine? Mine's got a bigger bed. . . "

"My bed's plenty big enough for sleeping, which is all we've got time for tonight anyway."

"That makes sense-" Chaeyoung stopped short and pointed out over the mountains. "Look! A shooting star!"

Jisoo looked, but not in time. "I missed it! That means you get the whole wish to yourself."

"I know what I'm wishing for, too."

"What's that?"

"Well," Chaeyoung said, gazing into Jisoo's eyes, "I've already got what I would have wished for, so I wish for everyone at Fire Lodge to be as happy as I am right now."


	13. Chapter 13

Jennie was hiding in Dahyun's closet, where she couldn't help but hear Lisa's conversation with Dahyun. She hadn't wanted to eavesdrop, but once Dahyun had shoved her into the closet, she really didn't have a choice. So she was sitting in the closet, trying her best to pretend she wasn't listening, and making sure she wasn't making any noise. At least, she wasn't making any noise until she heard Lisa say "I think I'm in love with Jennie." Upon hearing that, she couldn't help but let out an excited little squeak.

"What was that?" Lisa asked.'

"I didn't hear anything," Dahyun replied.

"No, I definitely heard something. It sounded like a mouse in your closet!"

Jennie heard Lisa walking toward the closet. In a panic, she did the only thing she could think to do - she grabbed the doorknob and held the door closed. No sooner had she done so than she felt Lisa on the outside of the closet, trying to open the door. Jennie strained silently, doing her best to hold the door shut without giving herself away. After the better part of a minute, Lisa stopped.

"I've got to go get a screwdriver so I can get the door open," she said.

"Can't it wait until tomorrow? Dahyun asked, yawning loudly. "I'm exceedingly tired and I'd like to get a good night's sleep before checkout tomorrow."

"No, no way," Lisa said. Jennie could picture her in her mind's eye: Her arms crossed, one foot in front of the other, shaking her head vigorously. "If it was just a stuck closet door, I could let that go, if you were okay with that, but a mouse is a potential health hazard. I've got to get in there ASAP."

"And I still say it can wait until tomorrow. Check with Jennie, see what she says. If she said it has to be done tonight, then it has to be done tonight. Otherwise, I really need to get some sleep."

Jennie heard Lisa crossing the room, presumably to the phone. After a brief silence, she said 'She's not answering at the front desk or in her room. I'll have to go find her."

About 30 seconds after that, she heard Dahyun whispering at the door. "She's gone. You can come out now." As Jennie came out, Dahyun added "How are you going to get downstairs? There's just the one staircase."

"The same way I used to sneak out of my room when I was growing up," Jennie said, crossing the room to the window. Climbing out, she anchored her toes in the stonework of the lodge and grabbed onto the drainpipe. Just then Dahyun stuck her head out the window, a big smile on her face. "Did you hear what she said? She loves you?" Jennie nodded, concentrating on not falling. Dahyun leaned out the window and kissed Jennie on the cheek "Good luck. Go get her!"

As Jennie climbed down, she heard Dahyun close the window. She kept climbing until she reached the end of the drainpipe, at which point she was still about 7 feet off the ground. Pushing herself away from the wall, she landed with a thump next to the rear deck. "What was that?" she heard a voice say.

* * * * * *

Chaeyoung looked around, trying to find the source of the sound.

"Maybe it was an animal?" Jisoo suggested.

Chaeyoung shook her head. "There shouldn't be any animals that big around the lodge this time of year. I'm going to go look. Be ready to call for help if you hear me scream."

Chaeyoung handed her mug to the trembling Jisoo and headed toward where it seemed like the sound had come from. Looking off the end of the deck, she saw Jennie standing on the ground, with no footprints to explain how she had gotten there. "Jennie, are you okay?" Chaeyoung asked.

"Yes," Jennie whispered. "Just help me climb up onto the deck so I can get back inside."

"Sure." Chaeyoung grabbed one of Jennie's arms and pulled while Jennie used her legs and her other arm to scramble up onto the deck.

"What happened?" Chaeyoung asked, once they had gotten themselves untangled and back to their feet.

"No time to explain," Jennie whispered, shaking her head. "I've got to hurry and get inside so Lisa can find me."

Just then they heard the door to the lodge open and heard Lisa's voice call out "Oh! Jisoo, hi! Have you seen Jennie?"

Thinking on her feet, Chaeyoung called out "She's down here!"

As Lisa headed toward them, Chaeyoung said "I heard a strange noise and asked her to come check it out with me."

"That's odd," Lisa said. "I'm trying to find her about a strange noise too."

"A strange noise?" Jennie asked.

Lisa nodded. "I think I heard a mouse in Dahyun's closet, but the closet door's jammed. It'd only take me a minute to pop the pins out of the hinges to get in and see, but she says she wants me to check with you first, to be sure this is really something that can't wait until tomorrow."

Jennie nodded. "A mouse is a potential health hazard. Let me go up and talk to Dahyun, you follow as soon as you get the screwdriver."

Jennie followed Lisa into the lodge, then rushed upstairs while Jennie went to get the toolbook. Knocking on Dahyun's door, she rushed inside. "Lisa will be along with a screwdriver in a minute," she said to a shocked Dahyun, but I don't think we'll need it." She opened the closet door, knelt down in the doorway, and made a big show of checking the baseboards with a flashlight. She was about halfway done when she heard Lisa walk in.

"How'd you get the door open?"

Jennie leaned back and looked out at her. "You forget, I grew up in the lodge - I know all its secrets. This closet door binds up sometimes; all you have to is jiggle it just the right way and it opens, no problem."

"Any signs of a mouse?"

Jennie shook her head. "None at all. But you can set a trap in her tomorrow after Dahyun leaves - ask Chaeyoung where she stored the box of no-kill traps."

As Jennie got up and shut the closet, she heard Lisa apologizing to Dahyun for the disturbance. "It's not a problem," Dahyun was saying, "it's just that given a choice between a mouse and a carpentry project when I'm trying to sleep, I'd rather have the mouse. I understand about the health hazard, though - Jennie must be proud to have you for an assistant if you're that concerned about all your guests."

"She's been doing a great job so far," Jennie said. "Come on, Lisa - I think I know where Chaeyoung stashed the ice cream."

Grabbing Lisa's hand, Jennie led her out of the room and down to the kitchen.


	14. Chapter 14

Chaeyoung woke up to find Jisoo in her arms, snoring lightly. "Oh yeah," she thought, "I could get used to this." She leaned over and planted a kiss on the tip of Jisoo's nose. "Wake up, sweetie! We've got to go make French toast."

Jisoo rolled over, smacking her lips, and seemed surprised to find Chaeyoung there. "Well hello," she said with a smile. "This is all right!"

Chaeyoung gave her a hug and kissed her on the forehead. "Much as I'd love to stay here all day, we've got to go down and get to work on breakfast."

In just a matter of minutes they were both dressed, teeth and hair brushed, and padding down the stairs to the kitchen.

"You're on bacon this morning," Chaeyoung said. "Warm up the griddle, fill it with bacon. When the bacon's done, put it all on a warmed plate, refill the griddle, and start the whole process over. By the time you finish that, I should have the French toast ready to go on the griddle."

"There are two secrets to French toast," Chaeyoung said as she started mixing eggs and milk in a baking pan. "The first one is to use good bread - if it's not a bread you'd enjoy eating plain, it's not worth making into French toast. I like to use a challah or a brioche. The second secret is instead of using cinnamon, using pie spice. It's got a mix of cinnamon with nutmeg and some other spices, so your French toast will have a more complicated flavor profile. The diner's won't be able to tell what's different, but they'll know the difference between this and any French toast they've had before."

Chaeyoung looked up and was pleased to see that Jisoo was paying attention to her instructions while also keeping her eyes on the bacon. She decided to give her apprentice a challenge. As Jisoo was taking the last of the bacon off the griddle, clearing the way for Chaeyoung to cook the French toast, Chaeyoung called out to her. "Jisoo, peel, core, and wedge 3 apples. Put them in a saucepan with a quarter cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of pie spice. Cook it, stirring frequently, until the apples are softened and the sugar's all melted."

"Yes, Chef!" Jisoo responded with a wink and a saucy grin. She took some apples and a paring knife over to the prep table and got to work. After a few minutes of relative silence, broken only by the sounds of Chaeyoung flipping the French toast and Jisoo cutting the apples, the peace was broken by a yell from Jisoo. "OW! DAMMIT!" Chaeyoung looked over just in time to see Jisoo bleeding profusely from a cut in her hand.

"Get to the sink and rinse your hand," Chaeyoung said, running for the first aid kit. She cleaned Jisoo's hand with an antiseptic scrub, rinsed it again, and took a look at the wound. "You got lucky - it's long but not deep, and you don't appear to have hit any major structures. Wiggle your fingers for me." Jisoo did, and found she still had full function of all her fingers. Chaeyoung taped a gauze bandage in place over Jisoo's wound and was just finishing putting a nitrile glove on her hand when they both smelled burning French toast.

Chaeyoung sprinted for the stove, scooped the French toast off the griddle into the trash, and immediately laid out a new set of slices. "How are you feeling? Do you need to sit down?" She turned around and saw that Jisoo was already cleaning up the apples and getting ready to sanitize the prep table.

"I was stupid," Jisoo said. "I kept telling myself to be careful and not to go too fast, but I wanted you to be proud of me, so I kept trying to work faster and I cut myself and ruined the compote." Chaeyoung could see tears welling up in her eyes.

"Hey, come here," Chaeyoung said, putting one arm around Jisoo's shoulders as she flipped French toast with the other hand. "If that was anyone's fault, it was mine. I was trying to push you to help you develop your skills, and I pushed you too far."

"That's sweet of you to say," Jisoo said, resting her head on Chaeyoung's shoulder, "but I know my skills - especially my knife skills - aren't up to what to what someone in this job would normally have, and I know you're having to work extra hard to make up for me, and I feel bad about it."

Jisoo looked over at the prep table. "Let me go sanitize the prep table so I can get some fresh apples and try again."

^^^^^

Jennie got up and showered. Afterward, she took wrapped in a towel in front of her closet trying to decide what to wear. She wanted to dress nicer than usual, but not so much nicer that it was obvious she was trying to dress nice. She finally settled on a black turtleneck, jeans, and her black boots.

The butterflies continued swarming in her stomach as she dried her hair. Her mother had always said that how a guest felt at check-out was far more important than how they felt at check-in. When they were checking in, they had the excitement and anticipation buoying them up, but when they were checking out, all they had were their memories of their time spent with you. That's what they'd take with them, and that's what they'd share with others during the off-season.

Putting on her best "customer service smile," she went out to the front desk to wait for her guests. She was especially nervous to see Dahyun today. Jihyo and Tzuyu had had pretty much their usual vacation, not much out of the ordinary. Dahyun had been the one caught out in a blizzard and getting involved with (hopefully not having her heart broken by?) a member of the staff. Jennie tried to think of how her parents would handle the situation, and suddenly she knew what she would have to do.

As luck would have it, the guests were just then coming down for breakfast. Jennie called out "Dahyun, can I talk to you for a second?"

Dahyun told Jihyo and Tzuyu she'd catch up with them in a minute and came over to the front desk. Seeing the serious look on Jennie's face, she asked "What's up, Jennie? Is everything okay?"

Jennie nodded, took a deep breath, and said "Because of certain incidents that happened during your stay, the Fire Lodge wants to refund one night of your stay."

Dahyun looked confused, then started shaking her head. "No, no. You don't have to do that! No."

"I insist," Jennie said.

Dahyun sighed and rolled her eyes. "I see what you're trying to do here, and if your parents were here, they'd tell you you're doing a great job, possibly even trying a little too hard. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit - even the night spent huddled under a tree during a blizzard. No, make that ESPECIALLY the night I spent huddled under a tree during a blizzard. I mean, come on: Stranded in the wilderness with an exotic Thai beauty? People pay extra for that! If you really, really want to take less money from me, you can give me an extra night free during my stay next year, but otherwise I don't want to hear anything more about it."

A smile lit up Jennie's face. "So you're coming back next year?"

Dahyun laughed, shaking her head. "Jennie Kim, have you gone stupid all of a sudden? Of course I'm coming back next year! The Fire Lodge is like another home to me, and the people here are like another family."

Jennie leaned across the desk and caught Dahyun up in a hug. "I'm so glad you feel that way."

^^^^^

Jisoo finished cooking the apples, poured them into a bowl, and slammed them down on the tray next to the bacon.

Chaeyoung looked around and asked "What's wrong?"

"I just feel like I'm not good enough."

Chaeyoung grabbed a tasting spoon and tried a bite of the apples. "No, these are really good . . . and you're not talking about the apples at all, are you?"

Jisoo shook her head. "I know I'm a bother, and I'm afraid you'll decide one day you'll decide I'm not worth the effort."

"Every chef feels that way when they're first starting out. At the first restaurant I worked at, the big deal was Sunday brunch. Just about every diner had either eggs Benedict or eggs Sardou - so LOTS of poached eggs. The first time chef put me on eggs, I'd go through a dozen eggs to get two that he thought were worth being served. I felt certain I was getting sacked at the end of my shift, if I got to stay that long, but all chef said was . . . . and you're not even talking about cooking, are you?"

Jisoo shook her head.

Chaeyoung scooped the last slices of French toast off the griddle, put them on the platter, and sent breakfast up the dumbwaiter to the dining room. Then she came over to stand in front of Jisoo, wrapping her arms around her.

"We don't know," Chaeyoung said. "We never know what the future holds. But right now, there's no one I'd rather share my kitchen - or my life - with than you."

^^^^^

Lisa went upstairs to see if any of the guests needed help getting ready for check-out. Jihyo and Tzuyu had shut their door and put out the "Do Not Disturb" sign, evidently intent on grabbing a last little bit of vacation while they could. Lisa blushed to think about what was probably going on on the other side of that door.

She went down the hall to Dahyun's room and found the door open and Dahyun packing. It looked like a small tornado had come through the room, scattering clothes everywhere and Dahyun was picking through the wreckage to pack her suitcase.

"Knock, knock," Lisa called out. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Dahyun looked up and smiled when she saw Lisa. "Sure," she said. "Come in and keep me company while I finish packing."

Dahyun swept a pile of clothes off a chair onto the floor and guided Lisa into the chair.

"It seems like every year it takes me longer to pack," Dahyun said. "It's so peaceful out here, especially compared to Seoul, that a part of me wishes I could stay here forever." She laughed as she balled up some clothes and threw them into her suitcase. "Of course, another part of me craves the movement and excitement of Seoul and would probably go crazy if I spent too long out here. It's a balancing act, you know?"

Lisa nodded, even though she wasn't entire sure what Dahyun was getting it. It seemed that what Dahyun wanted right then for someone to listen to her, and Lisa could do that. Well, part of her could. Part of her struggled with sitting still and wanted to get up and more actively help Dahyun pack.

Dahyun was still rambling on. "I've been thinking about what you told me you wanted last night - you know, before the unfortunate incident with the mouse? I know it's none of my business and you didn't ask for my advice, but I just want to say if that's what you want, you should go for it. But be sure it's what you want, because you're likely setting yourself up for a wild ride. I think it'll be worth it though, if you can hang on."

"I'm think I'm sure," Lisa said, "but at the same time I feel totally unsure. Just thinking about it gives me butterflies and goosebumps."

Dahyun chuckled. "Oh, little girl. You've got it bad. Go talk to her."

Lisa looked up, startled. "Now? You think?"

Dahyun smiled at her. "No time like the present!"

Lisa said good-bye to Dahyun and headed down the stairs. As she expected, Jennie was at the front desk, working on something on her computer.

"How's it going?" Lisa asked. "Any big news?"

Jennie shook her head. "Just going over the reservations for next weekend. It's going to be another Twice company weekend. We'll have Chaeyoung, who was originally supposed to have been here this weekend, Jeongyeon, and Mina. According to Chaeyoung's call this morning, they'll all be sharing one room, so I'm thinking put them in the room Jihyo and Tzuyu are in this weekend. Chaeyoung also told me Sana had to cancel her reservation for next weekend - apparently she's been hospitalized with some sort of stomach problem."

"We should send her flowers, from the Lodge," Lisa said.

"That's a good idea!" Jennie started to make a note of it, then stopped herself and asked. "Can you take care of that for me? Here's Chaeyoung's number for you to call and find out what hospital she's in, and I'm sure you can handle finding a florist and selecting an arrangement."

Lisa made a note of the number. "I'll get on this in just a minute," she said.

Gathering up her courage, Lisa took a deep breath and asked "What are you doing after our current guests check out? Do you have time to take a walk with me?"

Jennie was about to say she didn't have the time, but when she looked up and saw the hopeful, expectant expression on Lisa's face, she couldn't say no. She wasn't sure what she was going to do about this situation with Lisa, but ignoring it obviously wasn't an option. "Sure," she said, "that sounds nice."

Dahyun had come downstairs in time to overhear the last of this conversation, and she gave Lisa a discreet "thumbs-up" as she went up to the desk to finish checking out.


	15. Chapter 15

Lisa helped get the guests checked out and then went to order the flowers for Sana.

First she dialed the number Jennie had given her for Chaeyoung. It rang half a dozen times and was probably about to go to voicemail when someone finally answered it.

"Hello?" The woman on the other end of the line had obviously had to scramble for the phone.

"Hi. This is Lisa from Fire Lodge. Is this Chaeyoung?"

"No, this is Mina. Chaeyoung can't get to the phone right now. Maybe I could help you?"

Lisa remembered that Mina was one of Chaeyoung's girlfriends (how did that even work?) so she hoped Mina would have the information she needed. "I hope so. We wanted to send flowers to Sana. Do you know which hospital she's in? And her room number?"

"I've got that written down right over here. Just a second."

Lisa got the information from Mina, then signed off with "We're looking forward to seeing you later this week."

"We're looking forward to it too - our time at Fire Lodge is one of our favorite times of the year."

After getting off the phone with Mina, Lisa checked online for a list of florists that delivered to that hospital. The she remembered she'd need to get the debit card from Jennie.

After seeing that Jennie wasn't at the front desk, Lisa used the phone to call her room. Jennie answered on the first ring "Hello?"

"Hi Jennie. Its Lisa."

"Oh! We were supposed to go for a walk this morning, weren't we? I'll meet you at the front desk in just a few minutes."

"Well, that sounds great, but actually I was calling to get the debit card so I can order the flowers for Sana."

"It's in the bottom of the register drawer. You go ahead and finish that, and I should be up there by the time you're done.

It actually took Jennie longer to make it to the desk than it took Lisa to order the flowers, so she had some time left over to worry about the walk and what she was going to say and how Jennie might respond and what if Dahyun was wrong and . . . and . . ."

Lisa closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She was interrupted by someone patting her on her hand "Are you OK?"

Jumping a little, she opened her eyes and saw that it was Jennie. "Oh, ummm, yeah, I'm fine. I was just doing a mindfulness exercise while I was waiting for you."

"Oh, like meditation? My mom used to meditate every day. I don't seem to have the time or the patience to. Anyway, you ready for a walk?"

"Sure!"

As they were putting on their jackets, Jennie said "We're going to be staying kind of close to the lodge, and the forecast today is for clear whether, so we shouldn't need the blizzard kit, but I want you to carry it anyway, so you get used to the feel of it on your back."

"Sure thing!" Jennie grabbed one of the blaze orange backpacks hanging in the staff area. She checked the contents - first aid kit, rope, bottled water, emergency food, space blanket - and repacked them under Jennie's approving eye.

"And now," Jennie said, "I think we're ready to go."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jisoo sat on a stool watching Chaeyoung do the dishes.

"Oh yes," Chaeyoung said laughing. "I'm building up all kinds of good karma. Once your hand heals, I won't have to do dishes for at least a week."

"You're the head chef," Jisoo pointed out. "You can do that anyway."

Chaeyoung nodded as she put the plate in the rack to dry. "That's true. But what's the point of having underlings if you can't take advantage of their misfortunes?"

Chaeyoung dried her hands, threw the towel into the laundry, and then crossed over to stand in front of Jisoo. "You know I'm just messing with you, right? The way you were talking this morning, you sounded like you wanted to be punished for your perceived shortcomings, so I didn't want to disappoint you - even if your shortcomings are more perceived than actual." She leaned forward and kissed Jisoo on the forehead.

Chaeyoung leaned against the prep table. "Let's see how much you remember from last week. What's the next thing we should do?"

"Plan next weekend's menu!"

"Yes! And then?"

Jisoo thought for a moment. "Inventory the pantry and make the shopping list!"

"Right again! And then?"

Jisoo was practically bouncing in her seat. "Go to the grocery store! Will I get to go with you again?"

"Probably - it's up to Jennie. And that should remind you of the very important step you left out."

Jisoo clapped her hand to her forehead. "Get Jennie to approve the grocery list and get the debit card."

"Yeah, we'd have looked pretty silly with a cart full of groceries and no way to pay for them."

Chaeyoung went and retrieved her notebooks from the pantry. She opened them up on the prep table - first her record of guests' preferences and dislikes, then next to that her recipe notebook, then on the far end a blank notebook for making the shopping list in.

"Come around on this side," Chaeyoung said. "You'll be in charge of writing things down."

With Jisoo to write things down, Chaeyoung didn't have to try to juggle 3 notebooks while writing up the menu and shopping list. Chaeyoung showed Jisoo how to divide a page into 6 boxes - 3 boxes for the descriptions of the 3 meals of a day, then 3 boxes for the shopping list for each meal.

"This is one of the easiest groups to cook for. The only big limitation is that Chaeyoung doesn't like beans and Mina doesn't like beondaegi, plum blossoms, or natto. Within those limits, all we've got to do is prepare a healthy menu and serve tteokbokki at least once." The whole time she was saying this, Chaeyoung was flipping through her recipe notebook, crossreferencing the ingredients of different recipes with the contents of the pantry and what she expected to be able to find at the grocery. Working together, it only took them 20 minutes to plan a whole week's menus.

"It won't always be that easy," Chaeyoung said, looking over the shopping lists and adding a couple of extra items, "some guests have a lot more food restrictions, and in a week or two we'll start having guests during the week as well, so we won't have the luxury of staff-only days. But I think by the time we reach that point, you'll be ready for it."

"I hope so." Jisoo said. She had a question she'd been dying to ask all morning but couldn't figure how or when to ask it, but she figured now was good a time as any. "I know it's none of my business, but what's up with this weekend's guests? They're all three girlfriends together? How does that even work?"

Chaeyoung opened her mouth, closed it again, then opened it again as she struggled to figure out how to begin to answer this question.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jennie led Lisa out of the lodge, then slowed down until they were walking side by side.

"What do you think of your time at Fire Lodge so far?" Jennie asked.

Lisa thought for a moment. "It's not like anyplace else I've ever worked. Everyone gets their work done, but it never really feels like we're rushing - everyone just knows their job and does it."

Jennie smiled. "Your Korean has gotten a lot better. When you first got here, you wouldn't have been able to say that without switching to Japanese."

Lisa blushed. "Thank you. How do you think the season is going so far?"

"It's a bit early to tell after just one week, but at least the first guests left happy, despite having a blizzard during their stay here."

"That's good. I was afraid Dahyun would have complaints."

Jennie shook her head. "No, no. On the contrary, she couldn't stop saying nice things about you. Apparently you made a positive impression on her."

"That's not what I would have expected," Lisa shrugged. "I guess as long as she's happy. . ."

"Whether she knew it or not, all Dahyun needed was something to occupy her until she gets back together with Chaeyoung again." Jennie laughed softly. "I swear, I've seen those two break up and get back together twice in the course of a long weekend."

"How's that going to work with Chaeyoung apparently being in a triad with Jeongyeon and Mina? Not that it's any of my business."

Jennie laughed. "Life at Fire Lodge is like living in a K-drama with a rotating cast of guest stars. I don't know how they'll manage, but I'll be very surprised if Chaeyoung and Dahyun aren't back together within a couple of weeks. Just like I'll be very surprised if the reason you've made sure you'd be alone with me right now is so that we can discuss our guests' love lives."

Lisa stopped walking and looked out over the mountains, gathering her thoughts for a moment. When she did speak, it was so suddenly that it took Jennie a moment to realize she had spoken. "Are you dating anyone right now?"

Jennie was caught by surprise even though she'd been expecting this very question, or something very much like it. She felt butterflies in her stomach as she said "No, I'm not."

Lisa nodded, then was silent for another long moment. "Tomorrow's my day off," she said. "Would you like to go get coffee - or something - with me, as a date?"

Jennie's breath caught in her throat for a minute. When she did regain her voice, it was to let out a long and confusing string of various combinations of "what?", "who?", "you?", "me?", and "really?"

Lisa smiled and laid her hand on Jennie's arm, causing Jennie's heart to melt further. "I'll take that as a yes," she said. "And if we head back to the lodge now, we should get back just in time for lunch."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung grabbed a jar of tomato soup and a loaf of white bread on her way out of the pantry. "There are two possible ways it could work," she said. "Go to the fridge and grab the butter and the sliced cheese. We're having grilled cheese sandwiches with our soup today."

By the time Chaeyoung got the soup into a pot and on the stove, Jisoo was at the prep table and beginning to butter the bread. "Two possible ways, you were saying?" she prompted.

"That's right," Chaeyoung said. "If three people, A, B, and C, are dating, there are two possibilities. One is sometimes called a V - A and B are dating, B and C are dating, but A and C are not dating."

Jisoo nodded to show that she was listening as she continued buttering the bread.

"The other is a triad - A and B are dating, B and C are dating, and A and C are dating. If you draw it out, it looks like a triangle. Have you been counting how much bread you buttered?"

Jisoo looked down - she had buttered 11 slices of bread, enough for 5-1/2 sandwiches.

"Go ahead and butter one more. We can take the extra sandwiches for a snack on our way to town."

"So," Jisoo began as she buttered the last piece of bread, "how can you tell if 3 people are in a V or a triad?"

Chaeyoung shrugged. "Unless you're one of the three, you really can't. Sometimes you can get an idea by watching them, but you can't tell for sure, and it's considered rude to ask."

"Rude? Why?" Jisoo asked as she started laying the sandwiches out on the griddle.

"Because basically what you're asking is 'Are A and C sleeping together?' And no matter how well you know the people, that's kind of a personal question."

Jisoo blushed as she finished assembling the sandwiches. "Yeah, I can see that now. Is there anything else I should know to keep from offending them?"

Chaeyoung thought for a second. "Not really. Just anything you wouldn't ask a monogamous person about their relationship, don't ask a polyamorous person about theirs."

"Poly who? Isn't that like when a man has a bunch of wives?"

"That's polygamous. Polyamorous means people who are okay with the idea that someone can be involved in a loving, intimate relationship with more than one person at a time. Polyamorous groups can have any number and gender of people. Oh, and they're different from swingers, and some of them get insulted if you get the two groups confused."

Jisoo nodded as she flipped over the sandwiches. "I've seen this sort of thing in movies, but never imagined I'd encountered it in my actual life."

Chaeyoung laughed. "I think you'll find that as you get to know more people, that people have any number of 'interesting' preferences that you never would have imagined."

Jisoo looked up. "Do you have any 'interesting' preferences I should be prepared for?"

"Well," Chaeyoung began, as Jisoo's eyes grew big. "Sometimes I have an irresistable craving for a fast food cheeseburger."

Chaeyoung began to laugh, joined by Jisoo as soon as she recognized what Chaeyoung had just said. "I think we can handle that while we're in town this afternoon."


	16. Chapter 16

Jisoo noticed that the atmosphere was subtly different at lunch. Lisa seemed even happier than usual, while Jennie seemed - if she didn't know better, she'd think Jennie was nervous. And several times Jisoo noticed Jennie watching Lisa when she didn't think anyone was looking. Yes, something was definitely afoot at Fire Lodge, but there was no way Jisoo was going to figure it out during lunch, so she turned her attention to what Chaeyoung was saying.

"So if it's OK with you" - Chaeyoung was obviously coming to the end of her report about the next week's shopping list - "Jisoo and I can leave right after lunch and be back from town by dark, assuming we don't have any more automotive misadventures."

Jennie nodded. "What? Oh yeah, that sounds good. Make sure you take the debit card with you." Jisoo had the feeling that Jennie hadn't been listening all that closely to what Chaeyoung was saying.

Lisa stood up and carried her dishes to the dumbwaiter. "Excellent lunch, chefs," she said to Jisoo and Chaeyoung. She then turned to Jennie and said "It's my day off, so I'm about to go skiing. Do you want to come with me?"

Jennie shook her head. "I can't. Someone has to be at the lodge to answer the phone."

Lisa pouted. "Couldn't you just forward it to your cell?"

Jennie shook her head again. "The landlines in the valley are super old school - no call forwarding, no call waiting; we're lucky we get calling at all."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Well, if you can't you can't. But will you at least take the phone outside? I'm pretty sure you haven't been outside since you went out to investigate that noise for Chaeyoung Sunday night - say, did you ever figure out what that was?"

Jennie and Chaeyoung shook their heads. "Probably some kind of animal," Jennie said.

Chaeyoung put up her hands like claws and made a fearsome face. "Or maybe it was a dokkaebi."

Jennie shrank back. "Don't even joke about that."

Lisa scrunched up her forehead, looking confused. "What's a dokkaebi?"

It took Jennie and Chaeyoung a couple of minutes to come up with the right word to explain to Lisa. Jisoo was no help, because she'd never heard of a dokkaebi either.

Finally, Chaeyoung said "It's a Korean goblin. Jennie's dad used to tell stories about them around the fire, and Jennie would always get afraid and run inside."

Jennie sat up as tall as she could. "That's because I had my grandmother telling me that dokkaebi are real and if I didn't behave, the dokkaebi would get me. I'm not afraid of dokkaebi now. I just don't like them."

Chaeyoung nodded. "O-kay." She was obviously unconvinced.

"I think an animal was more likely than a dokkaebi," Lisa said, apparently trying to put Jennie at ease. Then she turned to Jisoo. "I need to get something from my room, but then I need to talk to you before you go."

"Be quick about it," Chaeyoung said. "We're leaving as soon as I wash the lunch dishes."

"It'll just take me a second," Lisa said, dashing out of the room and up the stairs.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jennie was at the desk, gathering up the things she'd need in order to go outside to work, when she saw Lisa passing by on her way up from the kitchen.

"I'd have thought you'd be out on the slopes by now," Jennie said.

Lisa looked like someone who was trying not to look guilty. "I had to talk to Jisoo before the chefs left for town."

"That's right," Jennie said. "Your little 'errand'." Jennie didn't usually make air quotes, but the word "errand" in this sentence definitely deserved them.

Lisa laughed. "You make it sound like I'm up to something. Don't worry, boss-lady: You'll find out soon enough." And with that cryptic remark, Lisa was off to get ready for her afternoon of skiing.

As Jennie took the phone and her laptop and headed out to the back deck, she found herself pondering this mystery. "A mysterious errand," she thought, "that involves something from town, and that I'll find out what it is later." Jennie shook her head. She knew exactly how much she was paying Lisa and, especially since she hadn't given Lisa the raise to assistant manager's salary yet, she knew she wouldn't feel comfortable accepting a gift from Lisa.

Lisa's raise! Jennie felt an icy claw of panic clamp down on her stomach. How would it look if Lisa got a promotion and a raise just a couple of weeks after she and Jennie started dating? Would Chaeyoung and Jisoo think the two events were in any way related? Jennie sighed. She knew that besides workplace romances, the staff at a ski lodge - Fire Lodge was no different from the others in this regard - was prone to producing two things: Gossip, especially concerning the workplace romances, and resentment any time there was even a hint of favoritism or unfair treatment.

This was one time Jennie was glad the staff at Fire Lodge was so small: Even though it meant more work, it also meant rumors had a shorter distance to travel to reach everyone, and so less chance for everything to get distorted. Speaking of rumors, Jennie knew that as soon as Jihyo, Tzuyu, and Dahyun got back and started telling people about Dahyun's blizzard misadventure, rumors would start spreading through Fire Lodge's regular customers and probably even reaching potential customers. She'd better prepare a special supplemental e-newsletter to send out this afternoon detailing what had happened and trying to put it in the best possible light - without looking like she was trying to put it in the best possible light, of course.

She had just finished picking out pictures from the "rescue mission" - as if Lisa had needed rescuing! - to include in the newsletter when her thoughts turned back to Lisa's raise and workplace morale. What were the others going to think when Lisa got her raise. Because Lisa was going to get her raise and promotion, in full and on schedule. It wouldn't be fair to Lisa to hold back on giving her what she had earned because of what the others might think. But what would the others think? Jennie did her best to put herself in their shoes. Chaeyoung already knew the decisions Jennie had had to make when it came to hiring Lisa, and even if she didn't, she probably wouldn't care as long as it didn't affect how smoothly the kitchen ran. And Jisoo? Well, who could tell what Jisoo thought of anything. Half the time she seemed to be off in her own little world and the other half she was drowning in her hero worship of Chaeyoung. Jennie sighed. She'd have to have a meeting with the kitchen staff before giving Lisa her raise. And she'd have to do something to try to get Chaeyoung and Jisoo together, since it didn't look like Chaeyoung was going to do anything about it.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung and Jisoo had been on the road for about half an hour before Chaeyoung's curiosity got the better of her.

"Well?" she asked.

Jisoo had been staring out the window, apparently lost in her thoughts, and it took her a moment to bring her attention back inside the truck.

"Well what?" Jisoo asked.

"Well, aren't you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Jisoo asked, apparently genuinely confused, from what Chaeyoung could see while still keeping most of her attention on the road.

Chaeyoung let out a short laugh. "Aren't you going to tell me about this mysterious errand Lisa's sent you on? Won't I need to know where to take you so you can accomplish your mission?"

A look of comprehension spread over Jisoo's face. "Oh, that! She asked me to pick up a good bottle of Scotch. I figured I could get it at the liquor store next to the grocery. Unless you know of someplace better?"

Chaeyoung shook her head. "No, Park's Liquors is a good place. It's where we buy most of the liquor for the lodge." Chaeyoung got lost in thought for a moment. "Did Lisa tell you why she wanted this bottle of Scotch?"

Jisoo nodded. "Lisa said she was going to put on a private fire ceremony for Jennie tonight."

Chaeyoung let out a low whistle. "This girl is good!" she said, her voice clearly conveying how impressed she was with Lisa's idea.

"I don't get it," Jisoo said, her confusion plainly evident on her face. "I thought the fire ceremony always happened on the first night of the season. And I thought it already happened this year, and you and I missed it because the truck broke down and so we were crashing at G Dragon's that night?"

Chaeyoung nodded. "Normally all of that's correct. Apparently what Lisa's doing is adapting the spirit of the fire ceremony to another new beginning."

Jisoo looked even more confused, until suddenly a look of comprehension dawned on her face. "You mean Lisa and Jennie are dating?"

Chaeyoung nodded. "Apparently they're about to be. This second fire ceremony is to mark the beginning of that. It's just the thing to catch Jennie's heart - romantic but unconventional. Apparently their little walk this morning" - Chaeyoung knew about the walk because she had had to monitor the phones from the kitchen - "was so that Lisa could ask Jennie out. And apparently Jennie was smart enough to say yes."

Jisoo nodded vigorously. "So that's why Lisa seemed so extra happy at lunch. And why Jennie seemed kind of nervous and kept looking at Lisa!"

Chaeyoung spared a glance at Jisoo. "You don't miss anything, do you?" she asked. "You might not always know what it means, but you see everything."

Jisoo didn't know what to say to this, so she didn't say anything. Just as the silence was about to cross the line from awkward to really awkward, Chaeyoung spoke up.

"So after we get the groceries," she said, "we can go to Park's Liquors and I'll help you pick out a bottle of Scotch, and then we can go somewhere for lunch. I happen to know the place in town that has the best chicken skewers."

"Chicken skewers!" Jisoo did a little dance in her seat and then started singing a silly little song about chicken skewers. Chaeyoung smiled. It took so little to make Jisoo happy, and it made her feel so good when she did.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Lisa swooshed through another turn, the edges of her skis sending up a spray of powder. She found herself thinking that this was probably the best afternoon of skiing she had ever had. It was as if her heart being so light was buoying up the rest of her and she was skimming across the top of the snow, barely touching the ground.

She thought about her preparations for that night. She'd gathered up probably twice as much firewood as they'd actually need. She'd prepared her wish for the new fire. And assuming Jisoo and Chaeyoung came back when they were expected to, she'd have a bottle of Scotch.

She really hoped Chaeyoung and Jisoo made it back tonight. Not just because of the bottle of Scotch, but also because of dinner. She didn't know if Jennie could cook or not, but she knew that she couldn't - which was kind of ironic since her father was a chef. Apparently the talent had skipped her.

"That's right," she said, laughing as she entered another turn. "We'll begin tonight's romantic evening with a special dinner of cheese sandwiches and mango. Assuming Chaeyoung didn't use the last of the bread at lunch."

By this time she'd reached the bottom of the run and hopped on the lift to head up again. Her face positively beamed as she looked out over the mountain on her way up. Nothing could spoil this day for her. She knew that she'd happily eat cheese sandwiches and mango for dinner - for every dinner, forever - so long as she was eating them with Jennie.

As she started down the run again, Lisa thought about the last fire ceremony. She pretended not to remember any more of that night than Jennie did, but she actually remembered quite a bit more. After they were 3 or 4 glasses in, Jennie had told her she was beautiful. "So, so, so beautiful" had been her exact words. After another glass or two, Jennie had tried to kiss her. Lisa had stopped her, but that was a mistake she didn't intend to make again. Lisa made a mental note to be sure to brush her teeth before the fire ceremony. And to be sure to pour small shots of Scotch. After all, while she figured Jennie would need a little liquid courage to get her over her nerves, she didn't want Jennie to be so drunk that she didn't remember their first kiss.

As she neared the bottom of the run, Lisa found herself flying faster than ever before. The run was getting slick and icy, speeding her down the hill at amazing speeds. This was going to have to be the last run of the day, as the sun was nearly at the horizon already, so Lisa tucked in tighter over her skis, trying to wring every last drop of speed out of the mountain that she could. And later she never could say whether it was the glare of the setting run or if she'd gotten distracted by thoughts of Jennie's lips. All she knew was that she missed seeing the patch of black ice at the bottom of the hill. She went flying, and when she landed she was screaming in pain and her left ankle was bent at an unnatural angle.  She tried to get up by couldn't.  Ski rescue ran up to her, telling her not to try to move and that they'd take her to the doctor.


	17. Chapter 17

Chaeyoung and Jisoo bought the week's groceries, then went next door to Park's Liquors.

"How much did Lisa give you for the scotch?" Chaeyoung asked.

Jisoo told her the amount - it wasn't much.

"We're going to have to get creative if we want to find a good scotch for that amount. In fact, we're going to have to call in the big guns - I'm going to go ask Mr. Park."

Taking the money from Jisoo, Chaeyoung walked up to the front of the store. "Mr. Park, we have a dilemma. We need your help please."

The liquor store owner looked up from the magazine he was reading and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Chaeyoung! It's good to see you! And how is Jennie doing? That is such a shame, what happened to her parents. We all still miss them."

"Jennie's doing well," Chaeyoung said. "Keeping the lodge running is keeping her busy enough that she doesn't have time to feel sorry for herself."

"That's good," Mr. Park said, nodding. "Now, what is it that you need help with?" He noticed Jisoo for the first time. "And who is this lovely young lady?"

"This is Jisoo, my assistant-slash-girlfriend." She pulled Jisoo up beside her and put her arm around her shoulders.

"Hello," Jisoo said.

Mr. Park gave Chaeyoung an exaggerated wink and a thumbs up, then laughed. "Now, what can I do for you two lovely ladies?"

Chaeyoung showed him the money from Lisa. "Our assistant manager gave us this and asked us to get the best bottle of scotch we can with it."

"That does present a challenge. I could get you a nice Japanese whiskey for that price. Or Tattersall distillery makes a nice bourbon in that price range..."

"That's no good. It's got to be a scotch - sentimental reasons."

"Ah yes," Mr. Park said, nodding wisely. "Often the heart wants something particular even when the tongue cannot tell the difference." He walked up and down in front of the shelf of scotch whiskeys. From time to time he'd stop to look at one, once or twice even going so far as to take it off the shelf before rejecting it. Finally he settled on a bottle from the far end on one of the lower shelves. "There we go: The Famous Grouse. Best-selling whiskey in Scotland. Not the most sophisticated, but certainly far better than one should expect at this price range."

Chaeyoung thanked Mr. Park profusely. "You've made our assistant manager very happy, which will make Jennie very happy."

Mr. Park laughed. "Then I have done my good deed for today."

As they got in the truck and drove away, Jisoo said "I can't put my finger on it, but I feel like I've seen Mr. Park somewhere before."

"I'd be very surprised if you haven't," Chaeyoung said. 'Before he bought his liquor store out here in the mountains, he had a first career as a singer, under the name J.Y. Park."

Jisoo snapped her fingers. "That's it! I knew I'd seen him before."

"Between the town and the valley, you'll meet a lot of formerly famous people while working at the lodge," Chaeyoung said. "Some of them like talking about their 'glory days,' while others don't. It's considered very bad manners for you to be the one to bring it up. Now if they bring it up, then you can talk about it, but the first move has to be theirs."

"That makes sense," Jisoo said, nodding.

"Which brings us to our next stop, Aori Ramen," Chaeyoung continued. "It's owned and operated by Seungri - yes, that Seungri - but he never talks about his music career, and he'll throw you out of the restaurant if you bring it up. I've seen him do it. Something happened that he doesn't like to talk about. But he makes the best ramen and chicken skewers in town."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jennie was pacing up and down in front of the lodge, hoping that the phone in her pocket wouldn't ring again, when Chaeyoung and Jisoo pulled up. She could tell by the way their faces fell when they saw her that she must look as worried as she felt.

"Hurry and get the groceries out of the truck," Jennie said as she climbed up the back wheel and into the back of the truck. "Ski patrol has taken Lisa to the emergency room. They think she broke her leg."

"Oh no," Chaeyoung said quickly pulling bins and coolers full of groceries out of the truck. "Do you want us to go with you?"

Jennie shook her head. "There's no point. They'll only let her have one visitor. You'd just end up spending the evening in the waiting room. It'd be a big help to me if you'd stay here, monitor the phone, and have some sandwiches or something ready to eat when we get back, whenever that may be," Jennie said, holding out the phone to Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung took the phone and handed over the keys. "Okay, but if you need us, just call and we'll find a way to get to you."

Jennie stepped up and hugged Chaeyoung. "I know you would. Thank you. Now I've got to go."

Jennie climbed into the truck, started the engine, and drove off. By the time she got to the emergency room, she thought she was going to burst with impatience - she'd had to drive the whole way 10 miles under the limit because the streets were icy. Finally she was able to park the truck and rush inside. She didn't recognize the receptionist - must be somebody new. "Hi," she said. "I'm here to see Lalisa Manoban"

"Are you family?" the receptionist asked.

"No." Jennie shook her head. "But I'm her emergency contact person. The doctors called and told me she'd been injured."

"Only family members are allowed to go back to the exam room with the patient."

"That's bull," Jennie yelled. "That's never been the policy. Call Dr. Yang and ask him. If he says I have to wait out here, I'll wait out here. Otherwise, you'd better get out of my way."

Just then a doctor came out of the back. "What's all the noise out here? What seems to be the problem?"

"She," Jennie said, pointing at the receptionist, "won't let me in to see Lisa. Is that your policy now?"

"No, of course not," the doctor was saying, shaking his head and holding up his hands to try to pacify Jennie. "She's just new here. Now come on back. Lisa's in exam room 10."

Whatever else Dr. Yang might have been about to say was lost as Jennie rushed past him into the ER, looking for Lisa.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jisoo and Chaeyoung sat in the lobby of Fire Lodge, alternating between looking at the phone, as if that would make it ring, and looking out the window for the truck's headlights. It had been the work of 10 minutes to make a tray of cheese sandwiches and cut up a couple of mangoes, so now all they could do was wait.

"I wish there was something to DO. I can't stand all this waiting," Chaeyoung said.

Jisoo nodded her silent agreement, then suddenly her face lit up "I know what we can do!" Chaeyoung turned to look at her. "Lisa's not going to be able to make a fire with a broken foot," Jisoo said, "so we should make the fire for her while we're waiting."

Chaeyoung shook her head. "We don't know how long they're going to be. We could go through all the firewood before they get here."

"No," Jisoo said, grabbing Chaeyoung's hands and pulling her toward the back of the lodge. "We don't light the fire now, of course, but we go ahead and stack the wood so that when they get home, all we have to do is light it. And if they don't do the fire ceremony tonight, it'll still be there tomorrow."

Chaeyoung put her hand over her face. "You're right. I don't know what I was thinking."

Jisoo tossed Chaeyoung her coat. "You're just worried about Lisa. Now come on - the lifting and carrying will do you good."

They put on their coats and headed out to the back deck, where they were confronted with a mammoth pile of firewood.

"Whoa," Chaeyoung said. "Lisa ordered as much firewood as the lodge would normally use in a month!"

Jisoo looked at the stack of firewood, which was taller than her and about 15 feet long. "We're not going to use all of this, are we?" she asked in disbelief.

"Not hardly," Chaeyoung said, laughing. "Let's start by bringing a couple of these biggest logs to the fire pit and we'll go from there. Have you ever built a fire?"

Jisoo shook her head.

"OK then. I'll do the building and you'll bring me the size logs I ask for."

They started by putting the two biggest logs parallel to each other, then a couple of slightly smaller ones across them, then a couple of slightly smaller ones across those, as if they were building a miniature log cabin. After about half an hour, the pile was about four feet high and Chaeyoung was putting sticks as thick as one of her fingers on the top. They she had Jisoo gather up an armload of small twigs and strips of bark, which she stuffed inside the pile.

"All done!" Chaeyoung said.

"And that was much better than sitting in the lobby all this time," Jisoo said, stepping up behind Chaeyoung and wrapping her arms around her.

Chaeyoung reveled in the feeling of Jisoo's closeness.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Startled by a loud noise, Lisa looked up just in time to see Jennie run into her exam room. Jennie stopped for a moment just inside the door, spotted Lisa, and rushed across the room and swept Lisa up in a hug.

"Ouch!" Lisa cried, as Jennie jostled her injured leg.

Jennie jumped back. "Oh, I'm sorry! What happened? Are you all right? What did the doctors say?"

Lisa laughed. "And if you can stop asking questions for a moment, I can answer some of them. I hit a patch of black ice just as I was reaching the bottom of the mountain. I went tumbling end over end and hurt my ankle when I landed. I'm fine, just in some pain. The doctor said I broke my ankle, but just a little bit. He said he can put me in a walking cast and I can go back to work by Thursday."

'B-b-b-back to work?" Jennie sputtered. "You think I care about that right now? I've been so worried about you, but I couldn't come up here until Chaeyoung and Jisoo got back with the truck, and then I thought I was going to have to punch out the receptionist because she wouldn't let me in to see you, and I'm just glad you're all right." She stepped forward and, more gently this time, wrapped her arms around Lisa.

"I'm fine," Lisa said. "Just a little banged up. But you... what's this you were about to punch a receptionist?"

Jennie stood up and told Lisa about the confrontation in the lobby. "Last time I got a call to come see someone in the hospital, it was my parents, and they were both dead by the time I got there. So you can just imagine what it was like when they called and said you were in the hospital, but couldn't give me any more information than that, and I had to wait for the truck before I could come up here, and I had to drive slow the whole way because of ice, and then..."

Lisa reached out and stroked Jennie's cheek. "It sounds like you've had it worse than I have," she said. "I got injured, but you're the one who really got hurt." And she pulled Jennie back into her arms.

Looking down, Lisa saw Jennie looking up at her. Impulsively, she leaned down and planted a kiss on Jennie's lips. When Jennie didn't respond, she stopped, leaned back, and looked down at her. Jennie's eyes were wide with surprise as she tried to process what had just happened to her. Finally her mind caught up with events and she stretched up to kiss Lisa. Lisa immediately kissed her back, and there's no telling how long they would have gone on like this had they not been brought up short by the sound of a throat being cleared.

"If you can stop kissing the patient for long enough for me to put a cast on her, you can take her home and kiss her as much as you like, in more comfortable surroundings."

Lisa looked over and saw that Jennie was blushing, which she found exceedingly cute. She reached down and took Jennie's hand. "Stay here with me," she said, "and let me squeeze your hand if it hurts while they're putting the cast on."

Jennie interlaced her fingers with Lisa's, then leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek.


	18. Chapter 18

Jennie went to get the truck while a nurse helped Lisa into a wheelchair and rolled her out of the emergency clinic. The nurse helped Lisa climb into the truck one-legged and then handed her a package with her discharge instructions and her pain medication.

"Now," Jennie heard the nurse saying, "you call us if you have any problems. The number is on your instruction sheet. Oh, and ski patrol has your poles and what's left of your skis. When you feel up to it, you can ask Ms Kim to take you to their office; she knows where it is."

Lisa nodded and thanked her, then the nurse shut the door and stepped back.

Jennie leaned over and put her hand on Lisa's. "I'll try to take the smoothest route home I can, but the pain medication they gave you should still be taking most of the pain away."

Lisa looked over at her. "I didn't take any. They tried to give me a shot but I wouldn't let them."

"You what?" Jennie looked at her in disbelief.

"I didn't want you to come up here and find me out of my head ." Lisa smiled weakly, looking vaguely embarrassed.

Jennie turned to face the front of the truck and started to drive. "Lalisa Manoban," she said, "that is either the sweetest or the stupidest thing anyone has ever done for me. But as soon as we get back to the lodge, you're going to take one of your pain pills and I'm putting you to bed."

Lisa shook her head. "I can't. I've got plans."

"Plans?" Jennie asked. "What plans can you possibly have that you won't put on hold after breaking your damn leg?"

"It's something important," Lisa said defensively. "And it won't take more than an hour. And after that, if it'll make you happy, I'll take a pill and go up to bed."

"Go up to bed? I don't think so. Until that ankle's healed, you're going to be sleeping in my room so you don't have to go up and down the stairs so much. I'll sleep in your room."

"But-"

"And if you're tempted to argue with me about this, just know that I'm perfectly willing to escalate from 'request from your girlfriend' up to 'order from your boss'."

"Okay," Lisa said with a laugh. "You're the boss." After a brief pause she added "And my girlfriend" with a tone of wonder in her voice. "I like the sound of that."

Jennie reached over and squeezed Lisa's hand, then put her hand back on the steering wheel. "Just so you know," she said, "from the moment you moved into the lodge, I've been trying to figure out if you were gay, and if so how I could date you."

"Really?"

"Really! It sounds like you have seriously underestimated how irresistible you are."

Lisa laughed. "Now I know you're just messing with me. Irresistible? Me?" The cab of the truck rang with the sound of Lisa's laughter.

"Laugh if you want," Jennie said, "but Dahyun and I almost got into a fight over you."

"What? You almost what? Like 'I demand satisfaction! Rapiers at dawn! I'll have my second call on you.'?"

Now it was Jennie's turn to laugh. "Nothing so formal as all that. It was more like 'this chick better get out of my way or I'm gonna beat her up one side of the mountain and down the other.'"

Lisa was astonished at the ferocity in Jennie's voice. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

Jennie seemed to draw in on herself a little bit. "Maybe? I like to think I would, but I've never really been in a fight before."

Lisa reached over and stroked Jennie's arm. "So maybe it's a good thing you didn't have to. When Dahyun and I were stranded out in the blizzard, I realized that every time I was kissing her, I was wishing it was you."

"What? You wished I was kissing Dahyun?"

Lisa slapped Jennie's shoulder, then rubbed the spot that she'd slapped. "No! You know what I meant! My Korean's not that good yet."

"I was just messing with you - your Korean's fine," Jennie said. "And we're here!" Jennie pulled the truck into its spot beside the lodge and cut off the engine.

"Do you need me to help you get inside?" Jennie asked.

"No, I'll be fine - they gave me crutches at the ER."

"Do you need some help getting out of the truck?"

"Hmmmmmm," Lisa thought for a minute. "I don't really need it, but if you want to help, that would be nice."

"OK. You stay right there - I'll come around to help you out."

Jennie rushed around the front of the truck and opened Lisa's door. Putting her hands on the other girl's waist, she gently helped her to the ground, then stretched up to kiss her. "Come on," she said, grabbing Lisa's backpack. "Let's get you inside."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Chaeyoung was the first to see Jennie and Lisa pull up, so she rushed to meet them at the door, with Jisoo close behind. "Are you okay?" she asked Lisa anxiously.

"I'm fine," Lisa said. "Well, mostly fine. My leg is a little bit broken. I'll have to be on crutches for a couple of days and in a cast for a couple of weeks, but considering what could have happened, it's okay."

"Come on," Jennie said. "Let's finish this mysterious plan of yours so we can get you to bed."

"Wait," Chaeyoung said. "First she's got to have dinner - getting injured is hungry work."

As Jennie and Chaeyoung helped Lisa to a seat in front of the fire in the living room, Jisoo went to the dumbwaiter to fetch the tray with dinner on it. She put it down on the table next to Lisa and took off the cover to reveal cheese sandwiches and sliced mango. Lisa burst out laughing, and soon was laughing to hard that tears were running down her cheeks. The other just looked at each other in confusion until Lisa recovered enough to be able to explain.

"While I was out skiing," Lisa explained, between fits of laughter, "I was thinking that if Chaeyoung and Jisoo were late getting back, I hoped that Jennie can cook because if we're depending on my cooking skills, we'll end up eating cheese sandwiches and mango. Instead, you made it home in plenty of time and thanks to me being stuck at the ER all evening, we're STILL eating cheese sandwiches and mango!" Somehow while explaining this, Lisa managed to serve herself a plate of mango slices and a pair of cheese sandwiches without the others noticing, so they were surprised when she punctuated the end of her story with a bite of cheese sandwich. Noticing the looks of surprise on their faces, she held her hand in front of her mouth and said, "I'm sorry. I'm just really hungry and these sandwiches looked delicious."

The others all grabbed sandwiches and manjo - except Jisoo, who only got sandwiches - and clustered around Lisa to eat. Chaeyoung noticed how quickly Lisa was eating and wondered if this was just hunger or if she had some other reason for wanting to finish before the others.

As soon as Lisa finished eating, Lisa stood up and grabbed her crutches. Turning to Jisoo, she asked "Jisoo, can you meet me on the back deck as soon as you finish eating?"

"I'm not really hungry, I can come now," Jisoo said, putting aside her sandwich unfinished. She went to the door to the back deck and waited for Lisa to catch up.

Chaeyoung watched them go, and as soon as they were gone she turned to Jennie. "So... what's going on with you and Lisa?"

Jennie blushed. "We're going out for coffee tomorrow."

Chaeyoung shook her head. "No, no, no, no. There's more to it than that. I know what Lisa asked Jisoo to buy in town. I know there's more going on."

"Lisa kissed me at emergency."

"And?"

"And I kissed her back... And Dr. Yang walked in on us... And he called us girlfriends... And neither one of us corrected him..."

Chaeyoung leaned over and enfolded Jennie in a hug. "Way to go! I'm so happy for you."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

As soon as they got outside and shut the door behind them, Lisa turned to Jisoo. "Were you able to get what I asked you for?"

Jisoo nodded. "It's on the table by the firepit with a couple of shot glasses."

"Great. Can I ask you one more favor?"

"What?"

Lisa held her broken leg out in front of her. "I wouldn't have asked if not for this: Will you help me build a fire in the firepit?"

Jisoo laughed. "Go look in the firepit."

Lisa took a couple of hops toward the firepit and saw the fire laid out there, ready to be light. She turned back to Jisoo, a questioning look on her face.

"When we heard you were in the ER, Chaeyoung and I decided to make the fire for you. We didn't know if you'd be up for the fire ceremony tonight, but we knew you wouldn't be up to carrying firewood around."

Lisa crossed back over to Jisoo and gave her hug. "Thank you so much. Can you go get a couple more shot glasses? I want you and Chaeyoung to be part of the fire ceremony this time. And then can you bring Jennie and Chaeyoung out here? I'm going to go light the fire."

Jisoo gave Lisa a quick hug, being careful not to unbalance her, and then ran back into the lodge.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jennie followed Jisoo and Chaeyoung out onto the back deck. The first thing she saw was the fire, with Lisa standing beside it. Then she noticed the table next to Lisa, which held a bottle of scotch and four shot glasses, each with a shot already poured in it.

"What's going on?" Jennie asked, confused.

Lisa smiled at her. "Don't you recognize a fire ceremony when you see one?"

"But- but-" Jennie sputtered, "it's not the first night of the season."

"We decided," Lisa said, gesturing to include Jisoo and Chaeyoung in her statement, "that since a lot of things weren't ready at the time of the actual first night of the season, that we should have a second fire ceremony tonight, to celebrate the first night of the rest of the season."

Jennie sniffled, trying to hold back tears. "Really?"

They all nodded at her.

"Well, if we're going to do this," Jennie said, "I've got one condition. I want to announce my goal first."

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes. "Do you think we don't know how to run a fire ceremony? The manager always goes first."

"Okay then." Jennie picked up one of the drinks and stepped up to the fire. "Since the season started, I've been blessed with the presence of old and new friends" - she gestured with her drink toward Chaeyoung and Jisoo - "and the discovery of a new love. My goal for this season is to make all of you as happy as you've made me right now."

Lisa dropped her crutches with a clatter as she hurried to stand in front of Jennie. Looking deeply into her eyes, Lisa said "You already have." As she leaned down to kiss Jennie, Lisa heard Jisoo and Chaeyoung behind her, cheering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As hard as it is to say good-bye to Fire Lodge, I've got to mark this story as finished. I hope you all enjoyed it.


End file.
